


Frozen Destiny

by PascalDragon



Category: Frozen (2013), Stargate Universe
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Immortality, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-13 02:44:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 166,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3364775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PascalDragon/pseuds/PascalDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elsa has learned that with her ice powers also came immortality. Now in 2009 she is part of the Icarus project to unlock the secret of the ninth chevron. After an attack by the Lucian Alliance she finds herself together with other members of the project on the Ancient spaceship Destiny billions of light years away from Earth. They all need to fight for survival and to find a way home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers!
> 
> I love both Disney's Frozen and Stargate: Universe so I had this is little headcanon of mine: What if the Frozen canon was part of the Stargate universe and it turned out that Elsa was immortal.
> 
> This fic will be episode based and as it is I'm using the series' transcript on stargate-sg1-solutions.com as a backbone filled in with observations and thoughts from Elsa which will also be the main point of view. All in all I'll follow the series' course, but there /will/ be deviations and they'll get larger the farther into the series we'll come.
> 
> What can the Frozen fandom expect? Well... Hopefully insight into how Elsa has mentally and emotionally evolved over around 150 years. Fans that expect Frohana will likely be disappointed at least until I'll be able to tackle season 3. Snow Sisters fans will have more fun though at first it might not appear as such. I have something planned for the end of season 1 however. ;) I currently don't intend to ship Elsa with anyone (except the ship itself maybe :P ) despite what you might read in the upcoming chapters.
> 
> Additionally this is my first fan fiction I write in more than a decade and additionally the first one in English. Constructive criticism is very welcome. :)
> 
> But enough of me talking. After the disclaimer we'll start right into the Prologue. :D
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

It was a nearly cloudless September night and a bright green aurora filled the night sky. The dancing waves seemed to touch the mountains that surrounded the little kingdom of Arendelle. The day's work had already been done for a few hours and the capital lay quietly at the fjord that was its main route of trade during the day. Only from a few windows came a shimmer of light. One of these windows belonged to a room of the castle. Through its triangular window shone the flickering light of a fire. It was a wide room with watermelon colored walls that were decorated with cerulean, stylized patterns of flowers. On the left side of the window, in the corner of the room, was the fireplace with a white chimney reaching up towards the ceiling, a blazing fire was burning in it. Next to the fireplace further into the room stood a two meter wide four poster bed. It's frame was decorated with the Arendelle crocus.

* * *

Elsa stood on the far side of the bed, dressed in a rather simple sky blue dress made of linen. It was sleeveless, but underneath she wore an ice blue shirt with sleeves ending above her wrists while the round collar merely went down to her breastbone. Her hair which she wore in a simple ponytail was colored light brown. All a necessity of the identity she needed to assume after she had feigned her death nearly four years ago.   
Some months after her coronation the troll elder Grand Pabbie had approached her and disclosed that she was not only in the possession of extremely powerful control over ice and snow, but that she also was basically immortal and stuck with eternal youth. She hadn't further thought about it back then, but as the years passed she had painfully become aware that she didn't age further while her sister, her brother-in-law and all of her friends did. As the world wasn't likely ready for an immortal queen she decided to go into hiding. With Anna's help she had staged an accident in which Queen Elsa of Arendelle died a quick death. A few months later the new Queen of Arendelle, Anna accepted the services of a young brown haired woman from Prussia to help her in ruling the country. It had been none other than Elsa of course who had assumed the name of Gabrielle at that time.  
The years since then had passed like they were nothing and then the unexpected had happened: Anna had gotten sick with pneumonia. The doctors merely had given her a few more days and the trolls also were only able to reduce the pain the Queen might experience. This had been five days ago and now Elsa was standing next to Anna's bed on which her sister's weak body was lying. She was wrapped in a blanket and Elsa could hear her wheezing breathing while she slept fitfully.  
Looking to her left side Elsa could see the form of her trusty snowman Olaf who hadn't been his cheerful self for the last few days. His flurry had to work hard to fight the heat of the blazing fire despite them both being on the other side of the bed.  
Elsa continued to let her gaze wander and it landed on the two people that stood on the other side of the bed. They were Kristoff, Anna's husband and their daughter Ingunn. She was a strong woman of sixteen years and was in on the secret of Elsa's true identity.  
Kristoff wore woolen pants with his comfortable Sami boots, a simple, blue shirt with embroidery on its sides and a mildly colored scarf around his waist.  
His daughter looked more like Anna than Kristoff, though she had her hair and eye color from her father. Unlike her mother however she wore her hair more openly than in braids. Like her mother's face hers was sprinkled in freckles. Her dress was as simple as Elsa's, but it was based on reds instead of blues.   
What united the father and the daughter at this moment was the mournful look which they both directed towards Anna.

Elsa just wanted to continue her thoughts when a stirring from her sister's direction demanded her attention. Slowly the sick woman opened her eyes and tried to take in her surroundings.  
“Anna”, Elsa softly said and immediately teal eyes locked onto hers.  
“Hey.” Anna's voice was weak and rough. A series of coughs followed which Anna tried to cover with a hand brought up from below the blanket. “I can't go on any longer, Elsa.”  
“Don't say that!”, Elsa exclaimed, shocked that her sister could even muster a thought like that.  
“I can feel the pain.” As if on cue Anna winced and pressed her hands to her chest. The magic of the trolls seemed no longer able to help the woman.  
“Mama, please don't go!”, Ingunn pleaded with a shaking voice.  
“Sweetie, it's not my decision.” Anna smiled a bit. “Maybe God needs a bit of entertainment.”  
“Then He should look for someone else!” Ingunn clenched her fists, tears started to run down her cheeks.  
Another series of coughs stopped any discussion that might have arisen. Anna's hand now had a few drops of blood on them that she had caughed up with a few of the coughs.  
“It was a wonderful experience to have you all in my life.” She got weaker by the second. “I love you all.” The last few words were nearly inaudible. Elsa just wanted to say something when she saw every last bit of tension that was still left leaving Anna's body. Her head tilted to the side and her eyes closed.  
“No!” Elsa fell to her knees. This couldn't be happening. She just closed her eyes and wanted to shout out all the emotions that bottled up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“It's not the end, Elsa”, a voice announced behind her. Elsa's eyes shot open, but as she wanted to turn around she noticed that the bed in front of her was empty. Kristoff and her niece as well as Olaf were nowhere to be seen. The fire in the fire place still burned, but it didn't seem to emit as much light as before as the room was cast in shadows. Finally Elsa turned around and out of shock at what she saw she nearly stumbled backwards towards the bed for it was her sister Anna who was standing there. But unlike the Anna she had just seen seconds ago this one looked fit and healthy and even younger. She wore a dress similar to the one she wore after the Great Thaw: a moss green embroidered bodice above a porcelain shirt together with an ocean blue, embroidered skirt.  
“It can't be! I... I just saw you!”  
The Anna or whatever it was tried to calm down Elsa. She held her hands openly in front of her body. “It's alright Elsa. This isn't real.” She paused a bit. “But it's also not a dream”, she quickly added. “I'm real, you're real, but this place is not.”  
“Then what is this”, Elsa said while she finally got up from the floor.  
“It's to say goodbye.” Anna looked down sadly, but then her look brightened. “But it's not forever. I've been assigned to keep an eye on you.”  
“Assigned by whom?”  
“I can't tell you.”  
Elsa thought a bit about that. “So, you're an angel now? My guardian angel?”  
“You might say that. Though don't try to get into any dangerous situations. I'm not allowed to physically interact. Consider me more as an emotional guide.”  
Suddenly the window burst open, but instead of the outside there was a white, swirling surface that emitted a soft light.  
“That's my cue. I need to go.” Anna moved towards her sister and hugged her tightly with tears in her eyes. “I really enjoyed our time together, Elsa.”  
“Me too”, Elsa encountered with tears in her eyes.  
Anna broke the hug and placed her hand on Elsa's chest, right above her wildly beating heart. “I will be right here.” With that Anna turned towards the window and stepped through. Elsa's view was blinded by an intense light.

After a few moments it receded into a part of her view in front of her. She was back on her knees on the side of Anna's bed and behind the light she could also make out Kristoff and Ingunn. Anna's body however was gone, the blanket collapsed upon the bed. Instead there was this light that wasn't in her imagination, but was really there, floating above where Anna's body had been. For a second Elsa thought she could see Anna's face in the center of the light until it started to move upwards towards the ceiling. She followed it with her eyes until it went right through and the room was merely lit by the fire again.  
“Ok, what did we just see there?”, Kristoff asked confused his sadness apparently forgotten.  
“Oh, oh, I know!”, Olaf jumped up and down. “Anna has become an angel!”  
Kristoff and his daughter looked unconvinced at the snowman while a small smile appeared at Elsa's lips. She didn't know whether Olaf had witnessed the same as she had, but considering that all of them had seen the floating light she could also assume her talk with Anna was real. Anna has become an angel. Something didn't feel right though. Why would someone – was it God? - assign Elsa her sister as an angel? Looking back at the bed she sighed. Again there would be a grave without a body on Arendelle's graveyard. Slowly they all moved out of the chamber.

* * *

Soon after below the shining waves of the aurora the bells of the castle's chapel and the town's church rang through the silent night. For Queen Anna of Arendelle had died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I killed off Anna. Sort of. Fans of Stargate SG-1 will of course know what's going on. :P (and yes, I used the episode "Ascension" as orientation ;) )
> 
> Ingunn is an OC of mine who will likely be mentioned here and then in the future.
> 
> Update: I improved some phrases and instead of having Elsa's cover identity come from Corona she's from Prussia now. I changed this because I've thought a bit about the direction I'd like to take the story to and having Corona in this universe as well would not work.


	2. Air, part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the first real chapter which is based on SGU's first part of the pilot episode Air.
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

The planet the Icarus base had been constructed on was a barren one. With an atmosphere that was kept breathable merely by bacteria that did a kind of photosynthesis the planet still had a long way to go, but it was neither the atmosphere nor the bacterial life humanity was interested in, it was the planet's core. It consisted mainly of a highly unstable, but also highly energetic element called Naquadria. With a planet's core that was made up of this element all the world's power problems could be solved. At least if the planet would have had any native life that could make use of this power.

But Homeworld Command didn't want to use it to power any potential civilizations on the planet, instead they wanted to achieve something that hadn't been done at least since the prime time of the Ancients: to unlock the ninth chevron of the Stargate. To dial the Stargate with a nine symbol address the unimaginable power of the planet's core was needed. But the energy needed to be taken in a very controlled manner otherwise the core would destabilize and destroy the planet. The most brilliant minds on Earth had worked months to find a suitable solution for this problem, but they had hit a show stopper. A show stopper so big that Homeworld Command needed the input of a US senator to find other intelligent minds on Earth. For this the problem was converted so that it could be placed in a computer game about the science fiction series Wormhole Extreme. The conversion was done by Dr. Nickolas Rush who had been the head scientist of the project. It wouldn't be much of a joke to say that he was in an intimate relationship with this project. That's at least how Elsa thought about it. And she knew others thought so as well. Nevertheless she had also contributed her part. She had created texts in Ancient language and scripture that the players would need to translate to solve the puzzle. Also together with Dr. Rush – though he liked to downplay her role – she had programmed a way to recognize a valid solution for the problem they had faced. After all she had more experience in programming than anyone else on Earth especially considering that she had conferred with Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace back in the 1840s after Ada had developed what should become known as the first computer program of the world.

_And now look at me_ , Elsa thought. _I'm sitting in an underground facility on a planet 21 light years from Earth and prepare the discovery of whatever an ancient intelligent race has hid behind that address._

Today would be the time to find out whether all the effort put into the project was worth it. They had found a brilliant mind using the computer game and he was currently on his way here aboard the _General Hammond_ together with Dr. Rush and the senator who had ensured that this project would see the light of day and who had also suggested the idea with the video game.

Elsa pulled a flat, round object out of her jeans' pocket. A knob with a handle around it was placed radially from the center and a chain linked the handle with a belt loop on her trousers. The front of the silvery object was engraved with Elsa's signature snowflake and if she would have turned it around she would have seen the words “For the best sister in the world” engraved on it. The front however was a lid that hung on a hinge on one side of the round shape. Elsa opened the lid to reveal the face of an old, mechanic pocket watch. The hands were designed in intricate forms and the numbers were hand painted Roman digits. On the inside of the lids was an old black and white portrait of Elsa together with her sister Anna. Without getting held up too much up by the memories represented by the pocket watch Elsa merely checked the time and noticed that the ship should have arrived in orbit by now.

She closed the lid, put the watch back into her jeans' pocket for such watches and readjusted her reading glasses. She could hear a group of people arrive from outside the combined control and gate room. The first person who entered the room was Dr. Nickolas Rush. His dark brown hair intermixed with gray strands reached to his shoulders, but was currently pushed behind his ears. As Elsa knew from experience his hair wouldn't stay that way for long. On his nose he had a pair of reading glasses with thin frames, but solid, black temple stems. He wore a brown leather jacket above a pebble gray sleeveless vest and a crocodile green t-shirt with navy blue jeans.

Next to Dr. Rush was a man that easily looked larger than anyone on the base. He was dressed in a dark grey suit with a white shirt underneath the coat and a stone gray tie. He had well styled brown hair that started to show signs of grey on his temples. Elsa quietly assumed that this was the senator.

Behind the two came Colonel Young, the leader of the base. He was dressed in a simple, black military uniform with his name written in white letters on his right chest and the insignia of the base as a patch on his left shoulder. The insignia depicted a feather above a sun inside a blue circle with nine white stars. His hair was black and like the hair of all male military personnel on the base it was cut short.

After him a young woman with long, straight, black hair entered. She wore a pink, long sleeved coat that reached her knees. Likely this was the senator's assistant.

While Dr. Rush directed the senator and his assistant towards the scientists in the control part of the room in which Elsa sat herself on one of the chairs another two people entered the room. One was Lieutenant Scott, a young officer with brown, short hair. Above his base uniform he was wearing a black tactical vest and held a rifle in his hands that was strapped to his vest. Next to him walked a young, stout men dressed in light blue jeans, a grey woolen jacket and a red t-shirt with the words “You Are Here” written on it with white letters. Without a doubt she knew that this was the gamer genius Dr. Rush had collected on Earth. Not that she had anything against obese people or heaven forbid nerds or geeks – she was a big one herself.

Elsa stood up from her chair as Dr. Rush, the senator and his assistant had reached her place.

“Now let me introduce our head programmer: Elsa Agdarsdatter”, Dr. Rush announced while pointing his hand in her direction.

Elsa was glad that she was able to use her own name again. She had used various identities throughout the decades, but at the end of the 20th century it had gotten increasingly difficult to craft a new one. So she was really glad that Homeworld Command had provided her with a rather bulletproof identity based on her real name after her previous cover had been blown back on _Atlantis_. They had decided to keep her powers and real age a secret and to have it revealed only if necessary. Thus the only person on Icarus base that knew her real identity had been Colonel Young.

Out of an old habit that had never really died Elsa did a small curtsey before the senator shook her hand.

“I'm Senator Armstrong and this”, the man gestured to the young woman besides him, “is my daughter Chloe.”

The young woman reached for Elsa's hand and smiled. Meanwhile the young man in the red t-shirt had closed up to the group.

“I'm Eli Wallace.” Eli paused a bit, seemingly collecting his thoughts – or was it his courage? “That's a strange name you have.”

That remark was definitely unexpected by Elsa. “Ehm... it's a Norwegian surname. But if you prefer it you can simply call me Elsa. Most people her call me by my first name.” Though no one had yet remarked that her name sounded strange. Maybe they had better people skills than young, geeky Eli Wallace?

“Great! You can call me Eli.” He turned around and looked directly at the Stargate. “Oh look, that must be the Stargate!” He walked towards the gate with Scott closely behind him. Likely Colonel Young had assigned the Lieutenant to keep an eye on him.

Elsa turned back towards the senator and his daughter who were now introduced to the other scientists. From the corner of her eyes she could see that an additional group of officers had also entered the room, likely to be introduced to the important visitor as well. And just as the senator was done with being introduced to the scientists he turned to the military personnel which had assumed position in two parallel lines. Again he greeted each any every one of them until he had reached Colonel Telford, the second in command of Icarus base and leader of the base's air defense.

“And of course you know Colonel Telford”, Dr. Rush said upon which the senator and the Colonel shook hands.

“Ready for this, Colonel?”, Armstrong asked.

“You just give the word, sir.”

“Oh, I gave it quite a while ago, Colonel.” He glanced at a smiling Dr. Rush. “I'm just here to see how my 1.6 billion dollars is being spent.”

“Very good.” Dr. Rush laughed awkwardly. “Thank you, everyone.”

Colonel Telford then dismissed the officers and most of them filed away.

“Now as you know, up until now, we have been unable to channel the precise amount of power necessary to unlock the Stargate's ninth and final chevron.” Dr. Rush paused a bit for dramatic purposes. “However, thanks to some ingenuity from young Mr. Wallace here...” He gestured to Eli who had come back towards the control room part together with Lieutenant Scott. “... that problem has finally been solved.”

Eli was startled that his name had been mentioned, but Chloe and her father smiled at “their” discovery.

Colonel Young looked at Dr. Rush. “We've heard that before.”

“This time, we're sure”, Dr. Rush retorted slightly annoyed.

“That's what I figured out?”, Eli questioned while he moved closer to Dr. Rush and Elsa.

“We embedded the mathematical problem we had to solve into the game. I made sure that we would detect a correct solution and Dr. Rush then engineered your solution into a practical, workable application”, Elsa explained. This spiked Eli's curiosity. He turned and looked at the computers and studied the programs on them.

Dr. Rush wanted to say something – likely, because Elsa had dared to mention her involvement – but the senator cut him off. “What say we get on with it?”

This of course got Dr. Rush excited and Elsa's comment seemed forgotten. “Absolutely.” He turned to another officer sitting next to the Dial Home Device which was connected to a laptop on which Earth's dialing program was running. “Sergeant Riley?”

The Sergeant went to work immediately and a few key strokes later he announced: “Chevron One encoded.”

The group moved fully into the control room area and a few seconds later the ancient device on the other side of the room sprung to live with a deep clicking noise which was replaced by the sound of stone scraping over stone.

“We're dialing now?”, Eli asked confused.

“A test. To see if we can make a connection”, Rush answered.

Meanwhile the first symbol had reached the chevron at the top of the gate which expanded, lit up shortly and closed again. In its stead the chevron directly to the right of it lit up and the inner ring started to rotate into the opposite direction.

“Chevron One locked”, Sergeant Riley announced.

“If we do”, Colonel Young continued the explanation from before the announcement, “we will send an automated reconnaissance drone through. We'll see what's on the other side.”

“Chevron Two locked”

“And then they'll go?” This time it was Chloe that had asked.

“No, first we close down again, assess the data we've received and perhaps, send the away team”, Dr. Rush explained.

Lieutenant Scott turned to Eli and said: “If it works.”

“Chevron Four locked.”

“Till then, they're just, uh, interested observers, like us”, Colonel Young finished.

Everyone now turned their attention towards the gate and Elsa could feel the excitement in the room. The last time she had felt like this was five years ago when they dialed the Ancient city of _Atlantis_ for the first time in 10.000 years.

* * *

Carefully Elsa shouldered her way through the crowd of people that lingered in the corridor and the room behind it. With her travel rucksack on her back this was easier said then done, but in the end she had managed to not only reach the gate room, but also to find a spot with less than four people per square meter. She didn't like so many people so close to her. Never had. As it happened her safe spot was right next to the Stargate to the right of the ramp leading into it. Despite being with Dr. Elizabeth Weir's team for the last few months she still couldn't wrap her head around the thought that beings far superior than humanity had not only built an outpost in the cold desert of Antarctica which they had left in a flying city, but had also developed a network of portals that allowed one to travel between planets and even galaxies in the blink of an eye.

She had seen the gate once already many years ago in Giza. But only from a distance. And she didn't know back then what this artifact had been.

Eagerly she stretched out her hand and touched the material of the gate. It felt and looked like stone, but Elsa knew that this material and by extension the gate was a superconductor capable of storing massive amounts of energy. She let her fingers trail along some of the details of the gate. Trailing a few of the symbols that represented star constellations on the inner ring then moving to the outer ring with its etched details and finally one of the chevrons. There the metal of the gate was mixed with pieces of orange colored crystal of which she knew from technical reports and videos that they would light up once the gate was dialing.

“Can I have everyone's attention, please?”, a female voice announced to her left. It was Dr. Weir who was standing on the ramp in front of the gate. In a few seconds all discussions died down and everyone looked towards their superior.

“All right, here we go. We're about to make a connection. We have been unable to predict exactly how much power this is going to take and we may only get the one chance at this. So if we're able to achieve a stable wormhole we're not going to risk shutting the gate down. We'll send in the MALP robot probe, check for viability and go. Everything in one shot. Now everyone of you volunteered for this mission and you represent over a dozen countries.”

Elsa looked at the shoulder patch on her dark blue, civilian uniform which had a Norwegian flag above the expedition's insignia, a Pegasus above a Stargate's chevron.

“You are the world's best and brightest. And in light of the adventure we are about to embark on you are also the bravest. I hope we all return one day having discovered a whole new realm for humanity to explore. But as all of you know, we may never be able to return home. I'd like to offer you all one last chance to withdraw your participation.”

She paused a bit to let the words sink in and to gave the people time to voice their concerns. Nobody did though. Elsa didn't have any second thoughts either. True, she'd leave Olaf and Marshmallow behind in her ice palace, but during the last 150 years they got used to living there by themselves while Elsa travelled the world for extended periods of time. _This time it will be a different galaxy though_ , she thought. Before any bitterness could form Dr. Weir looked at the men inside the control room that overlooked the gate room. “Begin the dialing sequence.” She had started to walk down the ramp when she turned to look at Elsa. “It might be better not to stand so close to the gate, Dr. Dahlberg.”

“Of course, Dr. Weir”, Elsa said and hesitantly walked back into the crowd of people. Oh how she missed her original name. But it would not do to be a 180 year old woman looking like a 20 year old. Through the years she had used different identities and her current one was that of Dr. Maria Dahlberg, born in 1971. That of course required her to use quite some makeup to keep up the appearance of being 34 years old and she hoped that her supplies would last her long enough to come back to Earth.

A deep clicking noise pulled Elsa out of her thoughts. The inner ring of the Stargate had begun to move with a sound as if stone ground on stone. As fast as it had started the ring stopped and the chevron at the top slid apart, lighting up in an orange hue in the process. The chevron directly to the right of it then lit up as well. Finally the chevron at the top closed again, went dark and the inner ring started to spin again in the opposite direction. In the meantime someone from the control room had announced: “Chevron One encoded.”

Amazed Elsa watched as one chevron after the other lit up until the eighth symbol, a stylized pyramid with a just as stylized sun above it, reached the chevron at the top of the gate. The chevron opened, lit up and closed again. But this time it stayed lit and from the control room came the announcement: “Chevron Eight is locked.” A clicking sound came from the gate and blue particles started to form inside the gate. They became more in quantity and more massive until a blast shot out from the gate along the ramp. Shortly after the blast settled back into the shining blue surface that had now appeared in the inside of the gate. The connection was established and the room broke out in applause and cheering. They wouldn't get out of this adventure.

* * *

While Elsa was lost in her thoughts about her first dialing experience Sergeant Riley had announced that the eighth chevron was locked.

Finally the ninth symbol, the point of origin for this planet appeared on the dialing computer's screen. “Chevron Nine encoded.”

Just as the gate started to spin again the lights in the room started to flicker and the floor to vibrate. White discharges went from the two conductor plates above the gate towards the gate. Everyone looked around confused and Eli spoke up: “Wha-what's going on?”

Scott turned his head towards him. “I don't know. We've never got this far before”, he calmly explained.

“Chevron Nine”, Riley began. A pause.

_Come on_ , Elsa pleaded in her mind.

“Chevron Nine...” Another pause. Colonel Young looked towards Dr. Rush who looked nervously. “Will not lock.” The address had started to blink red on the screen accompanied by silent beeps.

Dr. Rush looked around frustrated then went to Sergeant Riley's place. “We matched the power requirements down to the EMU. It must work.”

“Power levels in the gate capacitors are going into the red”, Riley announced.

“Shut it down”, Colonel Young ordered calmly.

The project's lead scientist got desperate. “Well, wait, wait, wait, wait!”

“We're reading fluctuations in the output from the...”, Riley began, but was interrupted by the Colonel.

“Shut it down now.”

A sound that almost sounded sad came from the gate as its inner ring stopped dialing, the already lit up chevrons went dark again and the energy was discharged.

_Oh no._ Elsa's face fell. They had failed. All the calculations and her programming were for naught.

The blonde immediately went back to her laptop which stood on one of the tables next to the DHD to try and find any potential problem. She wasn't experienced enough in the calculations themselves, but she could at least ensure that no error happened when she had adjusted the power problem for the game and for the conversion back. Additionally she remotely pulled the Stargate's statistical data from the computer with the dialing program and let a program of hers ensure that the commands executed by the ancient device and their results corresponded with what they expected. Only remotely she noticed a discussion between Dr. Rush and Colonel Young until the former said out loud: “Eli? We'd best run through your equations again.”

Elsa saw him coming towards her after quickly excusing himself from the others. Two engineers run towards the gate to assess further data.

Eli was flabbergasted by the remark directed towards him. “You are not seriously putting this on me?!” He looked at the faces of everyone present. “Not my fault”, he protested.

Nevertheless he finally followed behind the scientist and they both stopped next to Elsa.

“Any ideas?”, Dr. Rush asked the blonde.

“I'm currently checking the conversion of the power problem to the game and back again and also run an analysis of the data gathered from the gate. Maybe especially the latter will help us to find out what's wrong.”

“Good, keep going. Eli, let's go to the whiteboard.”

While Dr. Rush expertly wrote the necessary equations onto the whiteboard the other military personnel as well as the senator and his daughter left the room. Only Scott stayed to keep an eye on Eli. The young man meanwhile sat on a chair in front of one of the desks and kept watching either Dr. Rush or Elsa who were both busy with their respective activities.

Finally the sound of a marker being slid across the whiteboard disappeared.

“There has to be a mistake in here somewhere”, she heard the scientist say.

Elsa knew what kind of discussion was coming and tuned them both out while she concentrated on the source code that was displayed in front of her. Her concentration was however broken when a new voice appeared.

“Lady and gentlemen, how's it coming?” The voice belonged to Colonel Young who had entered the room again.

Eli snorted a laugh as if to say “Nowhere”, but then turned to Dr. Rush who was rapidly erasing everything on the board.

“Whoa, whoa. What are you doing?”

“Starting from the beginning.”

“Wait! Save! Save! Save!” Elsa now stifled a laugh behind her hand while Eli turned to Young. “I can't...”

“Mr. Wallace, I'd like you to join me for dinner in the officer's mess.”

Eli and Dr. Rush responded at the same time.

“Thank you, I'm starving. I...”

“We're very close to a breakthrough here and actually I'd like Eli to keep working.”

Eli immediately glared at Dr. Rush for keeping him from getting something to eat.

“Well, we've been here for six months. It can wait a few more hours.”

That was all confirmation that Eli needed and smiling he walked towards the door. “Thank you”, he said to Colonel Young.

“You're welcome”, the officer responded and walked out behind the young man.

“Does no one see the importance of this?”, Dr. Rush exclaimed looking at Elsa who merely shrugged and turned her attention back to her computer.

* * *

After half an hour Elsa had finishing combing through the source code and now all she needed to do was to wait for the analysis of the gate's data to spit out anything that might prove useful. What she needed more however was a break. She stood up and passed Dr. Rush who had paused to write on the freshly cleaned whiteboard.

“I've finished checking the code, the analysis of the data is still running. I'll be in my quarters to take a little break.”

The scientist nodded absentmindedly and continued writing on the board. Elsa left the room and after she had turned the corner she could hear the pen being forcefully thrown against the board. No, she would not return. Everyone had his or her own methods of dealing with this and she would definitely not interrupt Dr. Rush during this.

A short walk later the woman had reached her quarters, opened the door, passed through and after closing it again she laid down across her bed with a loud sigh. To relax her mind she conjured a few snowflakes that she kept from falling down to the floor and more especially kept from melting in the warm temperatures the base was in because of the planet's core. Viewing the moving snowflakes she thought back at the time when she had discovered the nine symbol address in _Atlantis_ ' vast database.

* * *

Elsa sat with her laptop on her knees at her room's window through which she could see the spires of _Atlantis_ with the endless ocean of Lantea in the background. The previous day she had found an interesting article in the Ancient database that she wanted to finish and since she'd been off shift she planned to do precisely that. It was a vague text about some kind of experiment or something that the Ancients had done many years prior to the writing of the text. Something about the greater good for all living beings in the universe. One of the sentences suddenly caught her eye. It appeared highly constructed to be in such a fluent text and contained nine words that all consisted of multiple syllables. But it were the last syllables of each word that caught her attention. Especially the syllables “pro”, “rush”, “as” and “at” spiked her interest. Encoded in that sentence was a gate address! And it wasn't just any address, it was a nine symbol address! She couldn't believe her eyes. Immediately Elsa entered the constellation symbols into a little program she had written during her first year on _Atlantis_ to keep track of addresses. The address was Libra, Equuleus, Pisces, Canis Minor, Lynx, Aries, Centaurus, Microscopium and finally the point of origin, but she ignored that one as that would most likely be different anyway. She saved the address, closed her laptop and went off to find Dr. Weir.

* * *

Elsa smiled when she thought back at the reactions of her superiors and colleagues. They couldn't believe at first that someone had hidden a gate address in plain sight, but in the end she could convince them to start the Icarus project. Especially with the support of Senator Armstrong though she had never met him personally before today.

Suddenly Elsa felt the ground shake. She froze the snowflakes in midair. _What was that?_ She waited a few seconds and the ground shook again, this time stronger. _This doesn't feel good._ She vanished the snowflakes and went towards the door to look out. She saw a soldier running by and stopped him. “What's going on?”

“The base is under attack. Please go to your designated area”, he encountered and continued his way.

Under attack? But by whom? This planet was supposed to be a secret. It didn't matter now though, because she knew what the second part meant: go to the gate room and prepare for possible evacuation. Elsa immediately turned back into her room and reached for the backpack that stood next to her bed. She considered this her off world emergency bag and it already contained a few personal healthcare items and a few emergency clothes. Her eyes darted around the room to find any items that she'd like to keep should it really come to an evacuation. There was the photo album of hers and Anna. A few books which were hard to come by today, her smartphone, a set of adapters for alien technology and the one or other personal item she came across. She wouldn't need any clothes, she could buy those on Earth again. Yet a skirt had accidentally found its way into the backpack. After all she wasn't perfect. Now the only thing missing was her laptop which still stood in the gate room. She grabbed her backpack and darted out of the room. 

* * *

Since most of the people moved towards the gate room now it didn't take long reach it and she immediately went for her computer. Only now she noticed the discussion between Dr. Rush and Eli.

“It took us two years to find this site. The properties are unique. This may be our last chance”, said Dr. Rush. The ground shook again and the ceiling started to crumble. “If this bombardment continues, the radioactive core's going to go critical.”

“Y-you mean, the planet? It-it's going to explode?” Eli truly seemed shocked by this. Knowing the properties of Naquadriah Elsa didn't need Dr. Rush's answer though.

“Yes!”

Nevertheless this seemed to be enough to bring Eli back on track. “Ah! Oh-oh-okay.” He started thinking while frantically gesturing. “Um, um, um... If my math works...”

“We can't assume that!”, the head scientist interrupted.

“I said 'if'! Then, if it works, it's not a-a-a power supply issue. It-it's the gate address!”

“We've known the first eight symbols for years. The ninth has to be the point of origin!”

“Maybe he is onto something, Dr. Rush”, Elsa chimed in and the two men turned towards her. “The analysis of the gate's data finished”, she pointed to her computer, “and the only reasonable error code I found was what basically resolves to 'wrong address'.”

“But then what is the address?”, Dr. Rush asked frustrated.

In the background Elsa noticed that Sergeant Riley started to dial the gate, probably to start the evacuation to Earth. Looking at the screen of the dialing computer she thought back to the memory she had relieved a few minutes ago. “When I found the address in the database it really was a nine symbol address. All other addresses in there though not as eloquently encoded always were six or seven symbol addresses thus without a specific point of origin. But here the point of origin was explicitly mentioned.”

“Yes, what if it is the only combination that will work, like a code?”, Eli asked Dr. Rush. “It doesn't matter where you're dialing from, you just need to dial this specific address and nothing else will work.”

“Chevron Three encoded”, announced Sergeant Riley.

“A code”, Dr. Rush said slowly as if he was tasting the word on his tongue.

“Yeah!”, Eli exclaimed.

“Chevron Four encoded.”

With this Dr. Rush turned towards the Sergeant. “Stop the dialing sequence.”

“I have my orders.”

But the scientist didn't take a No for an answer. “Get out of the way.” He shooed Sergeant Riley out of his chair. “Get out of the way.” And sat down himself. “We can't risk dialing Earth.” He entered a sequence of commands and the Stargate stopped spinning. The people that were gathered looked at the device confused as the already lit chevrons went dark again. But it didn't take long until the Stargate started dialing again.

“Rush, what are you doing?”, Elsa queried exasperated, even dropping the scientist's title. Did he really just start dialing the nine chevron address? They needed to evacuate the base!

“This might be our only chance.”

She wanted to throw at him that it was _his_ only chance, preferably accompanied by some pieces of ice, but she held back. Panic began to rise in her and in this situation it was best not to use her magic as it might backlash. To distract herself she hastily turned around, closed her laptop and stuffed it together with its charger into her bag. Elsa looked at the dialing computer. The dialing sequence had reached the sixth chevron. She had to admit that despite the fact that this would hinder them from evacuating to Earth she was also eager to find out whether a connection could be established. The energy consumption of the gate increased and a warning sign on the computer monitoring the energy flow caught her eyes.

“The core begins to destabilize”, the blonde said. “The attacks must have thrown off the equilibrium.”

“Then let's all hope that this works.”

Just at this moment the ninth symbol appeared on the dialing computer's screen. Unlike during the previous attempt it was not the point of origin of this planet, but the one of Earth. Also Elsa knew that it wasn't really the pyramid symbol that was transmitted to the gate. The glyph representations were just that: representations. The data that was transmitted to the gate was far more complex and that was the main reason that each planet could have its own unique symbol and wasn't restricted to the merely 39 symbols that were on the gate.

Like in the previous attempt the ground had begun to shake and discharges went from the capacitor plates to the gate.

The pyramid symbol on the inner ring came in place of the chevron at the top which extended. _The address is correct!_ It lit up and closed again. All nine chevrons of the gate were alight and not long after the wormhole formed inside the open area of the gate. _We did it!_ “We did it!”, Elsa happily exclaimed.

“That... is... impressive”, Eli said in aw after the wormhole had settled.

Just in this moment Colonel Young entered the room. “What's everybody doing?” He pushed his way towards the ramp that connected the gate with the control room part. “I ordered an evacuation!”

Eli moved towards the officer. “He, uh”, Eli gestured towards Rush. “he didn't dial Earth. It's the ninth-chevron address.”

“What?!”, Young exhaled surprised.

Dr. Rush calmly walked towards the Colonel and started to explain himself. “The attack started a chain reaction in the planet's core. There's no way of stopping that. And any blast could easily translate through an open wormhole. It's too dangerous to dial Earth.”

“You could have dialed somewhere else. Anywhere else.”

“Shut it down.”

“We can't. It's too late.”

“Riley!”

The Sergeant tried to enter the shutdown command into the dialing computer, but the only response was an error message. “System's not responding, sir.”

“I need to get these people outta here.”

“We have a way out.” Dr. Rush pointed at the gate.

Now Young began to shout. “We don't know what's on the other side! Dammit, Rush!”

Elsa looked around, recognizing the crumbles that came down from the ceiling. “Can't be worse than here, can it?”

Further explosions could be heard. She saw Young grinding his teeth while he also looked around. “Nobody move. Await further instructions.” With that he left the room with a Sergeant behind him that Elsa had thought was in detention.

“That's it, he just leaves with the gate wide open?”, Eli said into Elsa's and Rush's direction.

“I bet he'll order the evacuation”, Elsa said. “We don't have a choice anyway. Staying here would be suicide. Better we prepare ourselves.”

* * *

A few minutes later Lieutenant Scott appeared in the room.

“Listen up everyone. We are not going to Earth so everyone take as much of the supplies as they can!” The people were confused, but considering the state the base was in they didn't argue either. Scott moved closer to the gate and turned around. “Once I'm through, follow one at a time on a three count!” He finally stepped through the gate.

“Okay, people. Make way. Move. Move”, another officer ushered the crowd.

Elsa wanted to move towards the gate when an idea hit her. She quickly unplugged the dialing computer from the DHD and stuffed it into her backpack as well. _It could be of use._ Additional she put her glasses into their case and put that into the backpack as well. She didn't want to have her glasses ruined during the evacuation. The bag was getting rather stuffed, but she hadn't bought a stable and big enough one for nothing. She strapped it on her back and went into the line for people disembarking through the gate. One after the other the people were given crates before they stepped through the gate. _It seems that the people count at different intervals to three_ , Elsa thought as she counted the time between people entering the gate. Eli, who was three people in front of her was already handed a crate and began to walk towards the gate. Just as it was her turn to receive one of the supply boxes she noticed that the young genius hold his breath when entering the event horizon. She had to suppress a laughter as she got hold of the box that was given to her and stepped onto the ramp. By now the person in front of her had stepped through the gate. Elsa slowly counted from 21 to 23 in her mind to not be too fast and then went through herself. _And once again I'm heading into the unknown._

* * *

When Elsa exited the Stargate on the other side she didn't merely step through like on earlier occasions. Instead she flew out of the gate and two meters behind the gate she fell on top of the box she had carried in front of her. Her arms had luckily dampened the impact, however it didn't change the fact though that it still hurt like hell. Nevertheless she quickly got her bearings together and remembered that there were still people behind her when she had entered the gate. So she quickly got herself and her box out of harms way and went to a side of the room they all had arrived in.

Slowly she took in her surroundings. The only light was provided by the gate's event horizon. To her right was the gate out of which still people and crates poured. To her left there were two staircases leading towards a balustrade. Despite the flickering lighting of the event horizon she could see that the people around her were all in various states of distress, despair and injury. Just as the woman looked at the shimmering surface again another two persons exited the gate after quite some pause. One of them was Sergeant Greer, the same man that had left earlier on with Colonel Young and who she thought was in detention. _It seems Colonel Young didn't want to leave him behind._ But where was Young? It seemed that she wasn't the only one with that thought as Lieutenant Scott went right up to Greer.

“Greer? Where's Colonel Young?”

“He was right behind me.”

Both he and Scott turned towards the gate and just on cue another person came flying through the gate. But unlike the others that had merely flown one or two meters and then landed on all fours the person flew literally through the room, touched down after 5 meters and slid a few further. Just when the person had stopped the gate shut down and two bursts of steam or whatever it was came out from the left and right side of the gate. Elsa was lucky that she hadn't picked a place right besides the gate as she could feel the heat of whatever it was. As quickly as the bursts had started they vanished again and left the room in eerie silence and darkness. All around the room flashlights were lit and Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer hurried to the person who had flown through the room, shooing people out of the way to get through. The person turned out to be Colonel Young. Elsa saw that a few words were exchanged between the Lieutenant and the Colonel and then the latter passed out.

“TJ!”, Scott shouted with panic in his voice and a blonde woman wearing the Icarus base's black uniform came forward. It was Tamara Johansen, one of the base's medical officers.

“I'm coming!”, She rushed to her superior officer and went to work immediately.

Considering that Elsa couldn't help with Colonel Young's injuries in any way, she decided to take of her backpack and to sit down on the floor. The events of the last few minutes came back to her mind. They had all just escaped an exploding planet which had been under attack, they were thrown around after a hasty evacuation to a place no one of them knew anything about and most of them were injured in one way or the other. She let her head sink into her hands with her elbows resting on her knees and breathed out heavily. _What a day._ It was a wonder that her powers hadn't acted out during all this. The years she had spent on _Atlantis_ and the dangerous situations there seemed to really pay off.

Suddenly a strange high pitched whine could be heard in the room.

“What is that?”, asked quite some of the stranded people.

The sound became higher and louder until some kind of wave that shifted all colors for a short moment went through the room and the people. A shuddering sound later it was gone again. Elsa looked around and saw Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer talking again. By trying to tone in to their discussion she got the last part of their dialogue.

“Nobody leaves this room”, Scott ordered while he turned to one of the exits.

“Yes, sir”, Greer responded and looked to down towards TJ who tended to her patient.

“Eli! Now!” Scott had turned around again to get the attention of Eli who looked like he was breathing heavily. After a few seconds he got a hang of himself and exited the room together with Scott.

Elsa looked around the room to see whether there was anything she could do. Her eyes settled on one of two columns behind each of the two staircases of around one meter height with a plane on top that was inclined towards the door at the opposite site of the Stargate. Her face brightened and a smile appeared. Now that looked suspiciously like terminals! She pulled her reading glasses out her backpack, which she put on after gladly noticing that they weren't broken. Finally the blonde got up and dug her way through to one of the columns.

“Can someone please lend me a bit of light?”, she questioned towards the crowd. A man with black hair and an oval face was stepping forward. He wore a white shirt with slightly darker, thin vertical stripes and light brown trousers. In his right hand he held a flashlight. Elsa recognized him as Dr. Adam Brody, one of the engineers of the base.

“How can I help you?”, he asked as he reached her at the terminal.

“Shine the light on this console, please. I want to try whether I can get us some better light.”

Brody positioned himself next to Elsa and directed the light at the console. This way she was able to read the buttons.

“The descriptions on the buttons are Ancient!”, Elsa happily exclaimed. Though this was not entirely unexpected considering that the Stargates had been built by the Ancients and this place, whatever it was, likely had been as well. “Let's see”, she mumbled and let her eyes wander along the buttons that were located next to a large, black surface which might have been a display. After a quick search among the buttons she found one that looked promising and pressed it. An electronic noise could be heard, the console in front of Elsa and Brody, the console on the other column and the lights inside the room turned on.

“We've got power!”, Brody announced happily. “Yeah, we've got power.”

“Thank your for providing your flashlight”, Elsa said and looked back at the console, curious about what she might find in the computer.

“You're welcome”, the engineer responded and went back to a group of other civilians. Just as he went away Lieutenant Scott entered the room again.

“Okay, can I have everybody's attention, please?” Elsa turned to him, but noticed that she was one of the few who did so. “All right, please listen.” This time Scott was louder, but most of the crowd still ignored him. “Hey, listen up!”, he finally shouted. Now he did have everyone's attention. Elsa needed to stifle a laugh. This reminded her of a few times back when she had been Queen of Arendelle. The people on her council would more often than not ignore her entering, though she had to admit that she had the habit of entering very quietly. It took a few tries for her to get the attention of the men and women and sometimes she either needed to get louder as well or to make use of her powers to achieve it.

“What is going on?” The question had come from Senator Armstrong. Elsa rolled her eyes. Of course it was the politician who questioned first.

“We are on an Ancient... spaceship.” A spaceship! That would explain that strange wave from earlier! Elsa got excited right away by the thought of being on an Ancient spaceship. Granted, she had been on _Atlantis_ which was a giant city ship and she'd been on the Aurora class battle cruiser they had found a few years ago, but it was always an adventure to get a look at a new kind of Ancient technology.

The crowd's reaction however wasn't as cheerful as Elsa's and Senator Armstrong voiced out his disbelief: “What?!”

“Tha-that's all I've got. Now wha-what that means is that...” Scott's explanation didn't get very far as he was interrupted by the senator. The young man really reminded her of herself during the first few days and weeks of her regency. So insecure of himself.

“That means you need to use the Stargate to get us all back home.”

“Yeah”, one of the women agreed and others in the crowd nodded.

“That is definitely on the list of things to do, sir, but I think right now...” Again Scott got interrupted.

“You can consider that an order.”

“We're working on it... sir”, Scott answered in a piqued manner.

“Now I need to speak to the person responsible for this. Where is Dr. Rush?!”, the senator demanded. With that Scott finally lost his temper.

“Ju-just shut up for a second!”

That got the senator furious. “How dare you talk to...” Suddenly the man gasps and crumbles in pain. His daughter and the Lieutenant immediately rushed to help him.

“Dad? Dad! Please!”, Chloe exclaimed.

“Medic!”, Elsa called into the rough direction of TJ.

Scott meanwhile looked around for help. “Water?” He asked around. “Water.”

The senator stuttered something incoherent.

Chloe looked around and spotted a box. “Here. Sit down”, she said and together with Scott she led her father to the box so that he could sit on it. TJ also came after them.

“My pills”, Armstrong said and pulled out a small bottle of his jacket. He opened it, got out a few pills and downed them with a shaking hand. Chloe sat next to him and tried to comfort her father. TJ meanwhile had started to take the man's pulse.

“Look. I'm sorry.” Lieutenant Scott talked again. “I-I'm just trying to explain the situation. We are on a ship, but we have no idea where we are in relation to Earth. Now with respect, sir, the reason you may be having a hard time breathing right now is because... the ship's life support is not functioning properly. Dr. Rush is working on that right now.” He turned around towards the crowd. “Brody? Park? Elsa?”

A woman with brown hair reaching just below her shoulders, wearing a violet wool jacket with long sleeves above a white blouse with black vertical stripes raised her hand. “Here!” It was Dr. Lisa Park. A good friend of Elsa. They both had met each other on the flight to Icarus base and had shared their meals here and then.

Dr. Brody answered as well. “Here.”

“Also here”, Elsa said.

“Okay, good”, Lieutenant Scott looked at them. “You three are with me.”

“But I just got these consoles online!” Elsa gestured towards the console behind which she was standing.

“No. Nobody touch anything yet! Dr. Rush needs your help. Everybody else... just stay calm, stay put. Please.”

“Stay put.” A man with brown hair and a round face spoke up. It was Dr. Dale Volker, an astrophysicist. “What do you mean, you're just going like that?”

“Yes, we have to ensure that we won't suffocate so that we can work on dialing back to Earth”, Scott exclaimed. “So please just do as I said.” He turned his attention to Sergeant Greer. “Greer, you're coming with us.”

“Yes, sir.”

Scott motioned for the three civilians to follow and together they went out of the room.

* * *

They walked through multiple dimly lit corridors and Elsa as well as Dr. Park and Dr. Brody looked into each corridor that branched off from where they're walking, glimpsed at each panel they came across until they finally reached a larger, round room with a column in the center that looked liked a light blue illuminated apple core. A few consoles were at its sides and Dr. Rush and Eli were standing in front of one of them, their backs turned towards the newcomers. As it seemed they were arguing with each other.

“What's going on here?”, Greer questioned as they entered the room. Both men turned around.

“The life support system is on, but for some reason, it's not working properly”, Rush started to explain. “I'm attempting to reset it.”

“He has no idea what he's doing”, Eli piped in and Greer suddenly raised his rifle, pointing it at Rush which made Elsa jump.

“Step away from that thing”, Greer commanded.

“That screen says that what you're doing is gonna overload...”, Eli started to say.

Rush however interrupted. “Eli...”

“Is that what it says or not?”

“You only think you know what it says on this screen, because I embedded a rudimentary version of the Ancient language into the game. This is not a game.”

“Don't touch it, Rush.” This time it was Scott who ordered the command.

Elsa had enough of these child games. “Gentlemen, please.” All present except for Greer turned their attention to her. “Let me take a look at this console to see whether Dr. Rush or Eli is right.”

Scott seemed to like the idea and even Greer relaxed though he didn't lower his weapon just yet. Elsa took this as an invitation and stepped towards the console in front of which Dr. Rush stood and looked at the contents it displayed. After a few seconds she turned to Eli. “I'm sorry, Eli, but Dr. Rush is right. You'll need to work on your Ancient skills a bit more.” The young man immediately deflated. “Oh, come on.” Elsa put a reaffirming hand on one of his shoulders. “No one is born a master. I can help you once we've solved this crisis if you want.”

Eli looked deep in thought. Maybe he wasn't used to being proven wrong, but he'd need to learn this lesson sooner rather than later especially if they should happen to be stuck on this ship for longer.

In the meantime the Sergeant had lowered his weapon.

“I'm now going to press that button”, Dr. Rush announced. “It's gonna fix the life support and then you and I and everyone else will be able to breathe and think much better.”

Scott merely nodded and the scientist pressed the button and released it shortly afterwards.

“So?”, Scott inquired.

“Well, I guess that would have been too simple”, Dr. Rush responded annoyed and left the room.

Elsa looked back at the console. Maybe she could now get a few answers. From the corner of her eyes she saw as the Lieutenant reached for his radio and pressed the button to speak.

“This may take a little more time, TJ. Hang in there.”

“ _Copy”_ , came the response from the woman in the gate room.

* * *

Elsa had explored the contents the console gave her access to with Eli on her side for around five minutes when Dr. Rush came back into the room and placed himself on another console. Park and Brody stood at a third console. Lieutenant Scott sat on one side of the room, seemingly bored out of his mind while Sergeant Greer stood at another side of the room and eyed Dr. Rush suspiciously. “What's that?”, questioned Dr. Rush.

Eli went over to look at Dr. Rush's console. “Well, it doesn't look like life support.”

“Yes, I realize that.” The scientist pressed a button and a holographic screen appeared in mid air between the consoles of him and Elsa depicting a spiral shaped galaxy with a blue, encircled dot at the outer area of it.

“Woah”, Eli exclaimed and Elsa mentally agreed with him.

“What are we looking at?”, Scott asked while he approached the screen.

“That's a star map”, Rush said monotonically.

“That's the milky way”, Brody threw in.

“I believe it's a...” Rush hesitated a bit to find the right words. “Visual log of the ship's journey.”

“So this is where we are now?”, Eli asked.

Rush shook his head. “No, that's where the ship originally embarked from.”

“Earth”, Eli said knowingly.

Suddenly movement came into the map as it panned back with a line appearing from where Earth was supposedly located. The line picked up speed and disjointedly connected parts of the map.

“It's leaving the galaxy”, Brody explained what everyone could see.

“It did. Long ago”, Rush countered.

“That was Pegasus”, Park exclaimed as a familiar galaxy was crossed by the line.

“So those points are more stars?”

Elsa didn't know whether she should giggle or roll her eyes. Instead she simple stated the obvious: “No. They're galaxies.”

Scott moved next to Rush who had looked back to his console. “Where the hell are we then?”

“Several billion light years from home”, Rush answered.

It took a while for this answer to settle in for everyone in the room. They were farther away from home than any human had ever been. Multiple times farther than they had even been on _Atlantis_. This meant that if they ever wanted to get home they'd need to find a way to dial back to Earth using the ship's Stargate. Otherwise they'd all die out here. This thought sent a shiver down Elsa's spine and looking into the others' eyes she noticed that they felt similar. _We are lost._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the Icarus project hasn't been Elsa's first off world activity. Though I don't intend to write an explicit Atlantis crossover with her. However the one or other further flashback as well as flashbacks to the years between Frozen and the present might happen (and suggestions are indeed welcome here :) ).
> 
> And as you might notice Elsa might play the role of a moderating element in this story. How will this play out in Divided? I don't know yet...
> 
> Update: A few small corrections like Elsa's family name and that Atlantis should be written in italic.


	3. Air, part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

“Okay, it seems that from here we can access the ship's database”, Elsa said while pointing to an entry on her screen with Eli standing next to her. Lieutenant Scott, Dr. Rush and Sergeant Greer had left the control room a few minutes ago to go back to the gate room and organize a search of the Ancient vessel. She, Eli, Dr. Brody and Dr. Park had started to examine what the ship had to offer.

“Cool, so we can now navigate their menu!”, Eli announced happily.

The two of them had spent most of the time figuring out the computer systems while Park and Brody were probing the apple core for any valuable information.

They were interrupted as footsteps became louder. They all turned around to see Dr. Rush entering the control room. His reading glasses were in his shirt's pocket and in his right hand he carried a heavy looking bag.

“Is there any progress?”, he asked, looking at all of them.

Lisa Park was the first to respond. “Fortunately for us, the life support system activated automatically when we dialed the ship. Probably emergency reserves, but only in certain sections. The reserve is gone.”

“Life support's been breaking down section by section ever since”, Dr. Brody continued. “Resetting it doesn't help.” Elsa rolled her eyes. Dr. Rush already knew this last bit of information, after all he was the one who had pressed the reset button.

“I asked if there's any progress?”, the head scientist asked annoyed.

“Unless something changes, according to my readings we only have about six to eight hours of breathable air left”, Park filled in.

Elsa had the feeling that this wasn't what Dr. Rush was going for and he confirmed that suspicion after a sigh. “Okay, let me put this another way. Has anyone got any good news?”

“Elsa and I figured out the menu system”, Eli responded with a smile.

“Try to find a schematic or map”, Dr. Rush ordered.

“Yeah. Google Spaceship.” Elsa needed to stifle a laugh upon that. Dr. Rush meanwhile turned to leave and Eli seemed to jump after him although in reality he remained rooted at their console. “Hey, hey, hey. I don't suppose you've got any food in that pack? I'm starving.”

The man with the bag turned around and shook his head. “No, keep working.”

“Well, where are you going?”

“To find a bathroom.” Dr. Rush now finally left the control room.

“Yeah. That would be good, too”, Eli said in a low voice that only the other three in the room could hear.

“Okay, bathroom later, now let's find a map”, Elsa countered while the two Doctors went back to probing the core.

* * *

They had been searching for a few minutes when the two of them had found something promising. It wasn't simply a map that they had found, but an interactive one at that, showing different information depending on the settings that one chose.

“It seems that we somewhere in this area”, Elsa said while pointing at a part of the map.

“Will we be able to see where anyone else is?”

“In principle the Ancient had life sign detectors, but I don't know whether this ship has already got them. But we might try to work with infrared sensors.” Elsa pushed a few buttons on the side of the console and the map was overlaid with a wide spectrum of colors. “Now let's filter out those parts below let's say 30 degrees Celsius and above 45.”

“Why 30 degrees Celsius?”, Eli looked at her questioningly. And just then Elsa remembered that this mission was mainly American based and so they usually used the Fahrenheit scale instead of the Celsius one. Likely the young man didn't have any experience with that scale except maybe the freezing and boiling temperatures of water. She credited him though that he hadn't asked her why she had chosen the Celsius scale at all.

“The human body temperature is normally around 36 degree Celsius. I went a bit lower to catch anyone whose temperature might have gotten lower. Likewise for the upper boundary”, Elsa explained.

Eli nodded. “Makes sense.”

Elsa played around with the scales. In the end it didn't matter anyway whether they chose Celsius or Fahrenheit as the Ancients had their own scale and she needed to translate to that. After she had done that the colorful surface of the map reduced itself to a bunch of colorful more or less round shapes. “We let the system approximate the found shapes to round, filled circles for easier recognition.” She pressed a few more buttons and the shapes simplified themselves to blue circles. “And voila, we got ourselves a life sign detector... at least until we find something better in the system.” Elsa smiled and ensured that she saved the settings as a custom overlay so that they could easily use it again.

“Impressive.”

“Now let's find out where we really are.” Elsa zoomed into the map and moved it around in the hope of finding a group of four dots. “This seems to be the gate room”, she remarked once the display had shown a room with a couple of dots in it. “And look, even the Ancients called it gate room. Or more precisely Astria Porta Room.” She continued to search in the immediate vicinity of the room and finally found four dots which were located as pairs of two in a single room. “Eli, would you please move over to the wall?”

“Sure.” One of the dots started to move away from one of the other dots.

“Yes, that's us. You can come back again.”

“So what did the Ancient's call this room then?”, Eli asked once he had returned to his position next to Elsa.

“Interface Control Room.”

Suddenly a new voice echoed through the room. _“Rush, this is Scott, come in?”_ It was Lieutenant Scott's voice that came from a lone radio that was lying on a bag next to one of the unoccupied consoles. _“Rush, this is Scott, come in.”_

Elsa wanted to reach for the radio, but Eli beat her to it. “Hello? This is Eli?”

“ _Where's Rush?”_

Eli hesitated for a moment, then answered. “Uh, bathroom, if he found it.”

“ _Uh, I'm at what looks like a bulkhead door. It won't open. I was hoping Rush could open it from there.”_

“Should I find him?”

“ _Uh, no.”_

As Scott didn't say anything further Eli went back to his and Elsa's console and checked the door himself. Elsa meanwhile stepped back. She wanted to use this as a little test for Eli. The young man navigated around on the map a bit until he had found three dots that were located in front of a bulkhead door that led into a large, round room labeled as 'Arboretum'. He pressed a few buttons and an additional overlay appeared that showed the door in red, blinking slowly. Elsa didn't know whether he had noticed or understood the status message which said that someone – likely their crew mates – was trying to open the door by force although it was locked.

“I think I found where you are. The door is flashing red”, Eli said into the radio.

“ _Can you open it from there?”_

“Red is usually bad, isn't it?”, he replied in a sarcastic voice.

“ _Maybe it means the door is stuck. Just try.”_

Just as Eli went to override the door's lock Elsa decided that it was time to intervene.

“Wait, Eli.” He stopped just before he pressed the final button. “It would be better if we first check whether there is any atmosphere on the other side or even better if we can find out if there are any hull breaches.”

“Oh, right, right.” Eli revoked the nearly finished command sequence to unlock the door and instead displayed atmospheric data of the ship. According to the data the room was completely evacuated. “Ok, no air. But I can't find anything about hull breaches. Maybe the life support hasn't started to work on that room.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe we can check whether the ship established any shielding to plug any hole there.”

“Like emergency force fields in Star Trek?”, Eli spoke hopefully.

“Yes, like that.” Elsa activated another overlay that according to its name would show just the information that they needed. And right she was. An orange shape appeared in the room on the map, somewhere on the opposite side of the door behind which Scott and the other two were standing. The orange flickered though and seemed to indicate that the shield wasn't entirely airtight.

“Oh sh-”, Eli began, but was cut off by Elsa.

“Give me the radio, please.” He did as asked. “Scott, this is Elsa.”

“ _Here's Scott, what about the door?”_

“We better don't open it. There is no atmosphere on the other side because of a hull breach that isn't entirely sealed of by the”, she looked at Eli and smiled, “emergency force fields. Likely because there are so many breaches all over the ship the shield emitters can't seal them off completely.”

“ _Understood. Though it will be a pity if this happens to be the engine room.”_

“No worries. On the map it's marked as an arboretum.” From the corner of her eye Elsa noticed how Dr. Park suddenly jerked up and turned her attention to Elsa. She remembered that Lisa had once mentioned how much she loved plants. Elsa smiled towards the woman and nodded.

“ _We'll just mark the door and head on then.”_

“May I”, Eli asked and pointed at the radio in Elsa's hand.

“Sure.”

“Scott, a lot of other doors are sealed for the same reason. We're only occupying a fraction of the ship right now. It just goes on forever. But if there are damaged areas of the ship that aren't sealed, that could be our problem.”

Upon hearing the sound of footsteps Elsa and Eli looked up and saw Dr. Rush approaching.

“Oh, hey. Good timing. We just found a -” Rush simply grabbed the radio out of Eli's hand. “Hey!” The former however ignored him and just went on to key the radio. “Really?”

“This is Dr. Rush. Meet me at the gate room immediately.” He put the radio down and looked at the occupants of the room. “Everyone.”

Without giving any further explanation he walked out of the room.

“Somehow I have the feeling that he didn't just go to the bathroom”, Eli said.

“Me, too, Eli. Me, too”, Elsa replied with worry in her voice as she followed the head scientist to the gate room.

* * *

It took a while until everyone had come back to the gate room. Rush was standing in between the two staircases while the others were chatting. Finally Lieutenant Scott arrived through the door behind the Stargate together with Sergeant Riley and a female soldier. Vanessa James if Elsa remembered correctly.

“What's going on?”, Scott inquired after he had moved through the people towards Rush.

The scientist held a metallic briefcase in his hands that he presented to the gathered people. “In this case are five Ancient communication stones. They work over vast distances in real time.” Elsa's eyes widened. They had encountered these stones together with the device they needed to be placed on back in _Atlantis_ around a year ago. Since the case was much smaller than the device on _Atlantis_ had been Elsa suspected that scientists on Earth had developed their own variant.

“We can talk to people on Earth.” It was Senator Armstrong who had spoken up.

“Yes.” Murmurs started among the crowd. “You physically take control of an individual at the other end. I brought these with us in the event that we ended up somewhere out of range of normal communication.”

“So, let's use them.” The crowd agreed with the senator.

“I already have.”

Multiple questions could be heard among the gathered people.

“What?”

“When?”

“Are they sending help?”

“No”, Dr. Rush answered the last question that had been asked by Dr. Brody.

“Why? Why aren't they sending help?”, someone wanted to know.

“The only means of dialing this gate from our galaxy was destroyed in the attack. We're cut off.”

From where Elsa stood she could see the distraught face of a woman with long black hair and Asian heritage. It was Camile Wray who was a member of the International Oversight Advisory and the primary representative of that organization on Icarus base. Her main task had been human resources and from personal experience Elsa knew that the woman was very experienced in asking uneasy questions.

“I want to use one of those stones now”, requested the senator.

“I have spoken with General O'Neill.”

“I am a United States senator -”

“I explained our situation clearly. In light of my knowledge and experience, he has placed me in charge.”

Elsa's eyes went wide again. _He did what?!_

“He did what?!” As it seemed the Senator agreed with her thoughts, as did the gathered crowd.

“How do we know?”, a man's voice asked.

“I have faith in our ability to repair this ship and to work together. But if we're to survive this, we need leadership and a clear chain of command.” Elsa could see Lieutenant Scott smirking at Rush's speech.

“We only have a few hours of air left”, Eli scoffed to which the crowd agreed. Dr. Rush would definitely not have an easy leadership.

“I want to speak to the General myself.”

“Senator, please...”

“Give it to him!”, Lieutenant Scott ordered in a booming voice. There were sounds of agreement and Rush looked around uneasily. But suddenly the senator started to gasp in pain and began to collapse. Scott and some other soldiers immediately went over to help him to the floor.

“Dad?” Chloe asked. “Dad!”

“TJ!”

Upon hearing the Lieutenant shouting her name the medic worked her way through the crowd.

“Yeah. Excuse me, excuse me.” Finally she had reached the man. “Okay.” She began checking his vitals. “He's still breathing.” Elsa could see that she pulled up the man's shirt which revealed a dark bruising all up his right side.

“Oh my God!”, exclaimed the man's daughter.

“I-I saw him taking some pills?”, TJ asked into the young woman's direction.

“Warfarin, for his heart.”

“No. Blood thinner's the last thing he needs if he's bleeding internally.” Overwhelmed the medic put a hand to her head. “Um...”

“Please, do something!”

“Look, I told you. I'm just a medic!”

“Everyone, please.” Elsa turned around to see Dr. Rush standing a few stairs up on one of the stair cases. “There's no need for us all to congregate into the one place. Ms. Johansen, please find adequate accommodation for the injured.” Did he try on purpose to sound so ancient? “And everyone else-”

“No, I don't recognize your authority, Dr. Rush!”, Camile Wray interrupted.

It became increasingly difficult to follow the two of them as they talked over each other.

“We have found-”

“And as an IOA representative-”

“quarters nearby-”

“I think you-”

“... much more comfortable.”

“I think you need to-”

“Please go there and stay there until you are asked to do something useful.”

“'Something useful'?!”, a female scientist repeated insulted.

“We do not want to settle in! We want to get back, right!” Camile had the support of the crowd.

“We should be working on getting home!”, Dr. Volker said.

“Exactly!”, the woman stressed.

“I'm not sure that's even possible”, Dr. Rush said.

“What?! You haven't even tried!”

“Maybe you should actually do something instead of standing around talkin' about being in charge”, a soldier with a helmet said. His name tag read 'Spencer'.

“If that's even true”, another man threw in. Elsa knew the signs of a crowd turning into a mob and these signs were all here and flashing in deep red.

“Everybody! Everyone, calm down!” Lieutenant Scott yelled, filled with authority. _Oh, so he can do crowd control._ “Now, the fact is, Colonel Young put me in charge, and I expect all SG personnel to follow my orders. As for the rest of you, you get out of line, we will lock you down.” Elsa noticed that all military personal took on a more stable stance as if to agree with what the Lieutenant had just said. “Now, Dr. Rush is right about a couple of things. First of we all have to work together, and second of all, we don't all have to stay here. So let's, let's move out.”

The people looked at him. They were still petulant, but also accepting. The young soldier turned to look at Wray and spoke kindly. “Come on, move. It's okay.” Slowly the crowd dispersed. Elsa decided to pick herself a quarter before all the nice ones were taken. Afterwards she would go and bother Dr. Rush with wanting to do 'something useful'.

* * *

With her backpack strapped to her back she followed a group of people that walked along the outer areas of the ship. Here and then one of them would stop at a door either on the left or on the right to claim one of the quarters. As the people before them walked past a door on the left Elsa decided that this would be her quarters. At least if it didn't turn out to be a broom closet or something like that.

She turned towards the door. It was a massive two winged bulkhead door. The two wings met in a straight line except for the center where a half circle of the left wing reached into the right wing. Inside this center was a mechanism that looked like two cog wheels inside each other. Likely this was the locking mechanism. At the right side of the door around one and a half meter above the ground was a control panel. It was shaped like a vertical rectangle, rounded at the top. The most distinct feature was a round knob in the lower half of the area. Below that were eight small buttons. Above the knob were two lights that fit around the top of the knob. One appeared yellow the other red. The area between the lights and the rounded top was occupied by a vertical grid pattern with a small blue light at the center. She would have to figure this out in the near future.

After a moment she reached for the big knob and gently pressed it. The cog wheels at the center of the door spun around clattering and finally the two wings slid apart to reveal the room behind them. She briefly wondered what would happen if the power failed and the door was closed, but that thought was immediately pushed aside as she noticed the window on the other side of the room. She hadn't yet had the time to look out of one of the windows herself, but she had heard Eli or Dr. Rush talk about an observation deck. She moved towards the window the edges of which were obscured by a patina. She didn't know whether that was inside or outside, but she didn't really care right now as it was the view through the clear area of the window that mesmerized her.

She had expected the ship to travel using hyperspace which meant that it would be traveling in a kind of tunnel through an alternate dimension. But this wasn't like that. There were waves of violet, blue and green that shimmered in front of her. And between these waves she could make out the stars. If she looked closely she could see that some of the stars slowly moved along as the ship passed them. Those stars were likely rather close. It was a truly breathtaking view and strongly reminded her of the aurora they had in Arendelle. She might feel right at home here.

The blonde took the sight in for a few more seconds until she forced herself to look at the room, her room, a bit more. Having turned back into the direction of the door she could see a bed at the right side. Probably the usual time proven design of the Ancients. At least the mattresses on _Atlantis_ had been fairly comfortable after 10.000 years of neglect. She wondered how old this ship really was. On the side of the bed was a small bedside locker with two drawers and on the other side was a vertical paneled lamp that could likely be controlled with the button between it and the bed. On the left side of the room she saw a table with two stools, a lounge comfortable enough for two people and next to her in front of a second window stood a small desk. On the far side of the room, near the door she noticed a small mirror. All in all it looked quite comfy for her taste. It was even more comfortable than her quarters on Icarus base considering that she now had a view to the outside. She didn't see a wardrobe around, but then again she didn't have that many clothes with her anyway. Likely she could fit them into the drawers of the bedside locker.

She walked to the door control panel inside her room and closed the door. She lowered her backpack next to it and decided to try out the bed first. Instead of jumping into it as her sister Anna would have most likely done she turned around and sat down gracefully. The mattress gave way. Once she had established that the bed was soft enough she let herself fall back with a sigh and stretched out her arms. She closed her eyes. _What a day._

“Yoohoo!” A female voice suddenly sounded from the left of Elsa. Likely from the lounge or the chairs. “Your favorite guardian angel is here!”

Elsa smirked, opened her eyes and looked into the direction of the voice. As she had expected it was her sister who was sitting in one of the chairs.

“You know that this isn't funny anymore since I know that you're merely an ascended being”, Elsa smirked. She resisted the urge to tackle her sister into a tight hug. She had learned the hard way that she could not physically interact with Anna. Painfully the blonde remembered that moment. It was the first time that Anna had shown herself after her death and Elsa had immediately run to hug her, but she went right through her sister, tripped and fell face forward to the floor. Luckily she hadn't hurt herself much, except for her pride.

“'Merely ascended being'?!”, Anna repeated in mocked hurt. “Let me remind you, my dear sister that I am way more powerful than you.”

“Yeah, yeah... I know... Phenomenal cosmic powers. Itty bitty living space.”

Anna gasped. “Did you just pull a Disney quote on me?” Although Anna could not interact physically with the world Elsa had watched various movies that she liked herself with her younger sister.

Elsa sat up and looked Anna over. As usual she was presenting herself as her roughly twenty year old self. Probably to ease her older sister who didn't look much older either. She was wearing a puffed, ankle length, white skirt on which – if Elsa looked closely – were white embroideries. Below the skirt she could see white, flat boots. The top was a simple white shirt of which the sleeves reached just below her elbows. Elsa really didn't understand what the Ascended all dressing in white was about. The only real colors were Anna's skin and her strawberry blonde hair that was styled in its usual twin braids.

“So...”, Anna began and a grin spread. “Do you like it?” She had gestured all around her.

“It's a very fascinating ship. Though this whole 'being stranded' part is a bit of a fun killer.”

“I didn't mean the ship, silly. Though it's nice that you like it. In fact I mean the room. I made sure that no one else would claim it.”

“Wait, what?” Elsa was completely taken by surprise by this news. “You used your powers to pick a room for me? Anna, are you out of your mind? What if the other Ascended banish you for this?” Why didn't her sister take care of herself? Sometimes Elsa wondered who really was the guardian angel here.

“Uhm... I did ask the others whether they would be okay with that. And they didn't say no.” Anna hesitated a bit and then admitted: “Though they didn't say yes either.”

Elsa sighed. “You are a foolish girl, you know that?”

“I just wanted to do you something good. It's so hard to see you all this time, knowing that I can't be with you anymore, that I'm merely a spectator and not a contributor in your life.”

“Oh Anna. I really appreciate the gesture. But you need to look after yourself. I can't loose you. I need you.” She searched the eyes of her younger sibling. “Please, promise me that you won't do anything so foolish anymore, okay?”

“I promise.”

“Good. And it's a nice room you've picked for me.”

“I'm glad that you like it.” Anna smiled again. “I'll leave you alone for now. You have a Rush to bother after all. We'll see us soon.”

“Right. Bye Anna.”

“Bye Elsa.”

With that Anna faded into nothingness and after a short moment Elsa stood up. “Time to make myself useful”, she said towards her empty room. She righted her shirt and got on her way towards the Interface Control Room.

* * *

After a short walk Elsa had reached her destination and was greeted by an annoyed Dr. Rush. “Ms. Agdarsdatter, I thought I told everyone to stay put until something useful for them comes up.”

Elsa rolled her eyes at the use of her surname and mentally prepared herself for an argument. “Dr. Rush, you know perfectly well that I'm most useful in front of a terminal.” The woman gestured to one of the consoles. She noticed that her superior wanted to answer and quickly cut him off before he could even begin. “Look, I think that it was irresponsible of you to bring us here, but we're here now and I have the feeling that we won't go anywhere for the time being.” This feeling had occurred to her on the way here when she pondered over why Anna would go to the trouble of arranging a room for her when they wouldn't stay for long. The only explanation was that they wouldn't leave the ship for now. “We might as well use this time to find out as much as possible about this ship. And more importantly find a way to not suffocate to death.” She paused a bit. “You said yourself that we need to work together. I know that you are very capable, Dr. Rush, but even you have to admit that you can't work on this alone.”

Dr. Rush ground his teeth and Elsa could nearly see the figurative gears turning in his head. Finally he answered. “Alright. But you do as I say, understood?”

Elsa nodded. “If I may ask: What's our current status?”

“I have sent Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer to search for additional leaks that we haven't closed off yet. I just wanted to guide the Lieutenant to one of the elevators when he requested radio silence.”

He wanted to say more, but just at that Scott entered the room followed by Eli.

“What's that?”, asked Dr. Rush pointing at a flying, metallic sphere of around ten centimeters diameter that followed after Eli.

“Flying camera ball.” The young man explained casually. “I'm calling it a Kino.” Eli used some kind of remote control to steer the ball closer to Dr. Rush who studied it interested.

“That's marvelous.”

“It comes with a remote. I thought we could use it to look around.”

“Great idea, maybe we can look into the damaged areas with those”, Elsa piped in.

“Oh, hi Elsa. Nice to see you here, too”, Eli said. He then turned to Scott and said in a low tone that Elsa could however still hear quite clearly: “See, I told you we could use the Kinos for that.”

The officer however ignored the remark and moved around the console that Dr. Rush had been working on before he had been interrupted by Elsa at first and the two men later on.

“What do you have?”

Rush moved back to the console. “Uh, well, it's not so good, really. Um, these processing nodes are scrubbers, responsible for cleaning CO2 from the air. Here, here and here.” He gestured to various points on a map that were within the area they had access to. “It's indicating malfunction. Others are failing.”

Scott immediately turned around and left the room. At the same time he spoke into his radio. “Greer, this is Scott, I'm heading for the Gate Room. Meet me there.”

“Hmm. Maybe I could search the database for any replacement parts for these scrubbers?”, Elsa suggested after the soldier had left.

“Do it”, Rush merely said.

Without hesitation Elsa went to one of the other consoles and started program searches for various terms that might be related to their task of replacing the scrubbers.

Eli meanwhile went to look over Rush's shoulder. “Is there a reason why you aren't using Elsa's lifesign detector overlay?”

“Lifesign detector overlay?”, the scientist repeated confused.

“Yeah, Elsa previously used the internal infrared sensors of the ship to build a simple lifesign detector.” Eli pressed a few buttons on Rush's console and Elsa, who had looked up, suspected that he activated her overay. She saw the scientist's eyes widen a bit in surprise and when he looked directly at her she could even see a hint of compliment in his eyes. Elsa in return merely smiled and nodded before she turned her attention back to her console. Maybe here on this ship she could finally show him that she was indeed capable enough for his gratitude.

A few seconds later another person entered the control room. It was Tamara Johansen. “Dr. Rush. Col. Young wants to see you right away.”

So the Colonel has awaken again? That was magnificent news. Rush however waved her to silence and instead keyed the radio. “There should be a kind of crate covering the node”, he said into the device. He waited a bit, likely until the two dots that represented Scott and Greer on the map where at the location he had indicated them. “What do you see?”

“ _A problem. We see a very big problem”_ , came the Lieutenant's answer through the radio.

All four occupants of the room looked at each other and without hesitation they all headed to the gate room.

* * *

It didn't take them long to arrive at the gate room and they went to a more or less secluded part of the room in which Scott and Greer waited for them next to a recess in the wall with a cylindric apparatus that was covered in some kind of black substance.

“Yes, that definitely looks like a very big problem.” Eli was the first to comment.

Dr. Rush reached for his radio. “Dr. Brody, I need you in the gate room to check out a substance that's covering the CO2 scrubbers.”

“ _Understood.”_

“It might be best to remove the scrubber form the sled it's on”, Rush suggested.

“Woah, I'm not touching that stuff!”, Eli complained and the others agreed.

“Maybe we have some gloves somewhere?”, Elsa suggested. She was long past the point to associate anything bad with gloves.

“I saw some when the others checked the stuff we brought with us during the evacuation.”, Greer said and moved to the orderly arranged boxes next to the Stargate. He opened one of the crates and pulled out a box full of single-use gloves. Rush and Elsa each reached for a pair of gloves, donned them and slowly moved the scrubber from its place down to the floor.

“We'll likely need to clean that stuff up as well”, Elsa said, not looking forward to that task.

“Greer, I want you to take Lieutenant James and Franklin to search for further leaks”, Scott ordered the other soldier.

“Yes, sir.” With that the Sergeant disappeared to search for the two mentioned persons.

In the meantime Dr. Brody arrived with some measure equipment in his arms. He placed the devices next to the scrubber on the floor and picked up one to measure the pH-value. He let the device measure the strange substance at the top of the scrubber before he announced: “Alkaline.”

“Everyone's heart rates are elevated. People are reporting headaches. It has to be”, TJ summed up. From the corner of her eyes Elsa noticed that Chloe had joined the group.

“What?”, Scott asked.

“The used up residue of whatever magic compound the Ancients used to scrub CO2 from the air”, Brody answered.

“So we now have two problems related to life support.”

“Our first priority must be to seal off any of the leaks. If we can manage that, then... we can maybe buy ourselves a day or so before the build up of CO2 kills us”, Dr. Rush explained while removing the gloves.

“As it stands, how much time do we have?”

“I don't know.” Elsa saw Dr. Rush wince. Maybe because of a headache. She didn't feel as well herself either now that she thought of it.

“A couple of hours at most”, Brody provided instead.

“Huh! Awesome!”, Eli piped in sarcastically.

“Brody, there was, um, some medical-grade soda lime on the supply manifest?”, Dr. Rush inquired.

“It never made it.”

“That's a pity.” Dr. Rush pulled out his notepad and used the pencil that had been contained in it to mess with the substance on the scrubber. “Well, in a ship this old, there's bound to be systems past their designed life.”

“Okay, so let's say we find the leaks. Can you fix this?”, Scott asked.

“I doubt this stuff can be cooked off. Perhaps... if there were stores of this substance in a clean form...” He looked at Elsa at that who immediately got the hint. “Or something else capable of CO2 sequestration: calcium carbonate, lithium hydroxide. Then yes, 'if'.”

“I'll go right away and adjust my database search”, Elsa said and wanted to turn to leave when she heard Lieutenant Scott speak up again in a stern voice.

“Okay, well that's not going to matter because you're gonna dialed back to Earth before this becomes an issue, Rush...”

Elsa, not wanting to hear more of this bickering between Rush and basically anyone else on this ship simply walked out of the gate room and back to the control room.

* * *

As expected the control room was deserted as all its previous occupants except for her were gathered in the gate room. She darted towards her console and after having removed the gloves she still wore she pulled up the search tasks she had left running. She removed her reading glasses with one hand and rubbed her other on her face.

“Okay, what words did the Ancient use again for CO2? Or scrubbing? Or sequestration?”, Elsa mumbled lowly. She replaced her glasses and adjusted a few of the search tasks that were too broad anyway. She didn't know how capable the ship's computers were so she didn't want to run too many tasks. Without having much else to do she simply observed whatever database contents her searches accessed and tried to mentally note more interesting ones for a later lookup.

A few minutes had passed until Dr. Rush and Eli also returned to the control room. Like Elsa the two went for their consoles and continued whatever work they did before they had gone looking for the scrubber.

“Oh, I think I found something”, Eli happily announced and reached for a radio. Likely Scott had given him one, because of Eli's usage of the Kinos. “Greer. I found what looks like a shuttle.”

Dr. Rush pressed a few buttons on his own console. “Looks like there are two shuttles attached to individual docking sleeves. Plus a vacant one.” This ship got more amazing with each discovery they made.

“ _Can you guide us to that shuttle?”_ , came Greer's voice out of the radio. Elsa returned her attention back to the console in front of her, blocking out the other activities in the room. At least until she noticed that Dr. Rush was shaking his head.

“We can't close it from here, either. There's something wrong with the mechanism”, Eli supplied through the radio.

“ _Now there's another door on the back of the shuttle, but there's no control”_ , was the answer a couple of seconds later.

“Then maybe we can close it off locally.” With that Dr. Rush left followed by Eli.

“Tz. What manners. Didn't even say good bye”, Elsa complained to the empty room and went back to her search tasks.

* * *

After around half an hour the room started to fill again. There were Dr. Rush and Eli, followed by Lieutenant Scott. A bit later came TJ and also Chloe. Rush and Eli had explained to Elsa that the shuttle they had found had a broken window. The shield wasn't effective enough to hold back the atmosphere as was the case in the Arboretum and probably every other damaged area of the ship. To make matters worse the door on the side of the main ship was stuck and the door of the shuttle could only be operated from the inside of said shuttle. A safety mechanism like in an elevator prohibited to jam the door long enough to have the person escape. So whoever went in to close the door would have to die.

Right now Dr. Rush was sitting on a bench at the side of the room, Chloe, Scott and TJ were standing around the apple core and Eli was at another side of the room talking to his Kino. Lost in her own thoughts Elsa paid only marginal attention to his ramblings.

“My head is pounding. Heart beat has accelerated. It's getting harder and harder to breath.” Eli went on more melodramatically. “As our very lives are being vented into space.”

“That is going to get old very fast”, Scott interposed.

“This needs to be documented.”

“No one's going to see that!”

“How do you know? We made it here. Someone else could, too.” Eli looked around the people in the room. “If we die, maybe this can help them to find out what happened to us.”

“Yeah, well we're not dead yet”, Rush said.

Elsa saw Eli glaring at the scientist before he turned back to his Kino and said something in a low voice that she couldn't really make out.

“Eli!” Considering Scott's scolding the nerd had continued with his documentation.

“What?!”, Eli protested innocently.

Unbeknownst to everyone Elsa had already worked out a plan so that no one would have to sacrifice him- or herself. She would do what she hadn't done in a long time and create a snow golem which could go into the shuttle and seal itself in there. Since it didn't need to breath it could survive till they might manage in the future to repair the shuttle. She just wasn't sure whether it was the right time to reveal her true nature. She preferred people to think of her as a normal woman and not as an 180 years old freak. Yes, she wasn't afraid of her powers anymore. She also wasn't afraid of others being afraid of her. But she didn't like the change in attitude that came with it. And if they would solve this suffocation problem they would all spend quite some time together on this ship. Maybe she could sneak into the shuttle without anyone noticing, let her golem close the door and disintegrate it again. She hadn't yet ever destroyed one of her living creations, both Olaf and Marshmallow were still living happily in her ice palace, but she imagined that she would be immensely hurt emotionally. However it was a price she was ready to pay.

“So how are we going to decide who?”, Scott asked after a while.

“I assume we're not going to get any volunteers”, Rush remarked rhetorically.

“What's another day going to buy us?”, Chloe questioned.

“Time... to find a way to survive.” Rush turned to TJ. “May I see the list?”

The medic handed him a notepad. “I marked the names of everyone injured.”

Rush hold the list a distance before him, because he didn't use his reading glasses. Likely the glasses or the frame were broken considering that he kept the glasses in his shirt's pocket. “Right. We have to find out people's skills, background, experience -”

“Doesn't take any special skills to die from asphyxiation!”, Scott interrupted.

“Look, what I'm saying is, It shouldn't be someone with potentially valuable knowledge, or the abilities we might need to help us survive beyond this.”

Elsa noticed that upon hearing this Eli turned to his flying camera. Likely with the same look of amazement that she head upon hearing his gall.

“Are you really suggesting what I think -”, Chloe began, but Scott spoke up as well.

“Half the people on this ship already want to kill you.”

“I don't care”, was Rush's simple answer.

“You can't ask someone to sacrifice themselves. Period!”, Chloe exclaimed.

“Politicians ask military personnel to sacrifice themselves for the good of others all the time. If someone doesn't go in there and close that door, we're all going to die. Period.”

That seemed to have killed the discussion and Elsa considered this the perfect time to act.

“Dr. Rush, maybe I can take a look at the shuttle's computers to see if I can write a little program that closes the door after a bit of a timeout”, Elsa suggested.

The scientist pondered on this perhaps wondering why he didn't have the idea. “Do it, but don't do anything stupid.”

Elsa smiled. “I won't. This ship is too amazing to miss it.”

* * *

Upon reaching the shuttle Elsa noticed that Greer and Franklin were still outside the docking doors with Franklin working at the controls of the door.

“Sergeant Greer, Dr. Rush has authorized me to take a look at the shuttle's door controls to check for a possibility to close it with a delay”, she said with as much authority as she could muster.

“Of course, ma'am.” Having been a queen certainly helped in such situations.

She climbed below the main ship's bulkhead door through a short corridor into the shuttle itself. On the front of the shuttle she could see one of the broken windows and she felt the air rushing past her out into space. She mustn't hesitate too long. She found the control panel at the front of the pilot's seat and saw that it in its current setup a mere button press would be enough to close of the hatch. She memorized the layout as good as possible and prepared to create her snow golem when Greer entered the shuttle together Senator Armstrong who was given support by the Sergeant.

“You don't need to search for a solution anymore”, Greer said.

“What? But I -”

“No, I'll do it”, the senator said. “I won't live long anyway. Let me at least die with a purpose.”

Elsa remembered the scene in the gate room when she had seen his bruised side. Despite thinking that it was a bad idea she didn't want to deny a dying man his last wish. She nodded and moved to the side.

“What do I need to do?”, the senator asked her while placing himself in the pilot seat.

“Just press this button once we've left the shuttle.” She gestured to a button on the control panel.

She turned to leave when the man reached for her wrist. “Please, take care of my daughter.” She looked into his pleading eyes.

“We will”, Elsa said and freed her hand once she felt that the hand around her wrist was relaxing.

As Greer and her had left airlock they noticed Chloe and Scott arriving in a hurry.

“Dad! No! Wait!” Chloe immediately run into the airlock, but it was to late. The doors were already closing and she wouldn't reach the shuttle in time. Chloe began to bang at the bulkhead door. “Dad! No! Nooo! No! Noo! Open the door! Please! Please, open the door!”

“I can't”, Franklin said.

Elsa felt sick. They were watching a man die. She had seen many deaths in her live, Sven's, Anna's, Kristoff's, the deaths of each and everyone she hold dear as the years had passed. Yet she still couldn't cope with this feeling. She hadn't known the senator much. But Chloe's pleading for her father and the stoicism with which he faced his own death made her eyes swell with tears.

“Please, open the door! No!”

She noticed that Scott looked at Greer, demanding an explanation.

“He was dead on his feet”, the soldier said in a neutral voice. Elsa did not know whether he really didn't feel anything regarding this or he simply masked his feelings so well.

“Dad! No! Please open the door!”

Scott went into the airlock and pulled Chloe from the shuttle's doors.

“No! Eli! Not him!” She must have used Scott's radio.

“ _There's nothing I can do from here”_ , Eli answered with a breaking voice.

“Help him! Open the door! Please!”

Elsa's tears were now running freely.

“Please! No. No! NO!!” Elsa could hear Chloe's hysterical sobs.

“No! He can't leave me!”

Suddenly Chloe appeared below the inner bulkhead door and run down the corridor. Scott was chasing after her. “Chloe? Chloe!”

Elsa collected herself for a moment and darted after them as well.

* * *

Elsa arrived shortly after TJ had entered the room as well and noticed that Scott hold Chloe in a firm grip while Rush was lying at one side of the room. She could imagine Chloe tackling Rush and hitting him with her fists.

“Hey, hey, relax. Hey, hey, Chloe”, TJ tried to calm the woman.

“Get away from me, all of you!” She pushed Scott and TJ away.

Meanwhile Rush was warily getting on his feet. “M-Miss Armstrong. You're in shock. Believe me, I understand. Everyone deals with tragedy in different ways. You're looking for someone to blame.”

“I'm not looking”, Chloe said with a sharp voice and TJ immediately held back Chloe as she wanted to charge at Rush again.

“Hey, hey!”

“I'm sorry to hear about your father. I truly am. He was a good man. And he certainly wouldn't have been my choice. But-but, you-you must realize, none of this was my fault. I didn't create the situation that forced us here. There was no other way.”

If the situation wouldn't have been so serious Elsa would have laughed out aloud. _He didn't create the situation?! Who dialed the gate then? Some Ancients?_ TJ helped Chloe to one of the benches on the side of the room. Once seated the young woman bend over and started crying again. Rush went over to her and kneeled down in front of her.

“Miss Armstrong, I know you don't want to hear this just now, but...”, he began sympathetically. Maybe there was still hope for him? “But this ship...” Okay... there wasn't. Elsa rolled her eyes and noticed TJ doing the same. “This ship could be the most important discovery mankind has made since the Stargate itself.” He paused a bit. Elsa needed to resist the urge to turn this man into an icicle right here. “You know, the Icarus project was something your father truly believed in, enough to risk his career to support.”

“What difference does it make if we all die?”

“A number of people died during the attack on the base. Some of them I knew very well.”

“I'm sure some had more value than others”, Chloe spat venomously.

“As human beings, all of them were invaluable. Look my point is, I promise you, I will do everything I can to make sure no one gave their life in vain. No one.” Chloe looked away from him. Rush hesitated a bit, then stood up. “Please give me a chance.”

Chloe stood up and after glaring at Rush she walked stiffly out of the room. Elsa could imagine that the woman fought dearly to hold herself back from strangling the scientist.

* * *

Around half an hour had passed since the death of Chloe's father. Scott had left the room with the intention to provide support to the woman and TJ has left to fill in the Colonel about whom Rush seemed to have completely forgotten. Dr. Park and Dr. Brody who had already been inside the room during that episode worked on the consoles alongside Rush and Elsa. Eli was lying on one of the benches, staring into space.

“Eli?”, Rush asked.

“What?”

“What are you doing?”

Eli got up. “I... just watched a man die. Okay?”, he answered.

Elsa saw that Rush looked at the young man for a moment until he turned back to his console.

“Don't you even care?”

“Of course I do”, Rush replied intensly. “But I'm also trying to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can.”

Eli turned towards Elsa. “And what about you, Elsa? I can see that you cried by the smudging of your makeup.” Her eyes widened and she rubbed her right cheek and sure enough there were traces of makeup on her fingers. “How can you just go on like this? All of you?”

Her makeup issues forgotten she turned to Eli. “Look. I had a fair share of death throughout my life. It's always a severe pain to see someone die. But right now we need to concentrate on our survival. We must make sure that the Senator did not die in vain. And for this exact purpose I'm currently running nine separate searches in the database in the hope of solving our life-support issues.”

“Right.” He paused a bit. “Found anything?”

“ _Destiny_ ”, Elsa merely said as if it would explain everything.

Everyone looked at her.

“As in ours?”

“The name of the ship, translated from Ancient. I've also discovered that they were never here.”

“I thought this was an Ancient ship?”

“It is. But they sent it out unmanned, planning to use the gate to get here when it was far enough out into the universe.” Elsa shrugged. “But... they probably learned to ascend before that time.”

“Learned to what?”, Eli asked blankly.

“Ascension”, Rush repeated to which Eli merely shrugged.

“It's a process whereby consciousness converts to energy and no longer requires physical form.”

“That wasn't in the video.”

“Well, there's more than one video”, Elsa explained knowing perfectly well which video Eli had meant.

“We should get back to work”, Rush concluded. Eli merely nodded and started to move away, but then he turned back.

“Sorry.” A pause. “To both of you.”

Rush merely mumbled some sounds of agreement, but Elsa decided to answer fully. “No problem Eli. I know it's hard.”

The young man moved over to one of the vacant consoles. However the silence didn't last long as some thought seemed to have picked is interest.

“Who is this Lucian Alliance anyway?”

Rush laughed. “Where did that come from?”

“I just want to know who to blame for this.”

“They are a human coalition. Made up from various Milky Way planets. Formed in the power vacuum left behind when the Goa'uld were defeated. They are criminals mostly. A street gang with starships.” Despite the grudge Elsa still hold against Rush on how he handled the passing of Senator Armstrong she couldn't help but smirk at this comparison.

“How'd they find out about Icarus? Wasn't it supposed to be, like, double secret?”

“I suspect there was a leak somewhere. Someone working on the inside.” Rush paused a bit before he continued. “The legend surrounding the ninth chevron has been floating around our galaxy for some time now.” Elsa noticed that Eli covertly pressed a button. Probably to start a recording on the Kino that lay next to him with its camera pointing to Rush. “We found that it meant various things to different cultures. Some said it was a key to the universe itself. And once unlocked you would gain untold power.” That was basically what the text Elsa had found in _Atlantis_ ' database had been about as well. “Now if the Lucian Alliance knew that we'd discovered the address and a means to dial, they'd want it.”

“This ship is a source of untold power?”, Eli asked skeptically.

“No, no, not literally. It's more to do with what it's doing. The information it's capable of gathering.” Rush stood up to fetch his notepad from his bag next to Eli's console.

“If you know how to use it.”

“Yeah.”

“That's what you're after, isn't it? Why you risked everything to get here. You think this ship is going to make you all-powerful or something crazy like that?” Hopefully this wouldn't end in another bickering.

Rush however hesitated a bit before he answered. He moved in front of Eli's console.

“Eli... If I could find a way to send all these people home safely and then return with a properly skilled team to pursue this mission as intended, why wouldn't I want to do that?” That was indeed a good question. Getting this ship back to working order would definitely be easier if they wouldn't have as much of a misfit crew as they had currently.

“I don't know.”

“Now turn that thing off.” Rush pointed towards the Kino. Elsa grinned. She had noticed correctly that Eli had started to record this.

“You saw that?”, Eli asked unbelieving.

While Rush went back to his console she saw Eli reaching for the button to stop the recording, but in the end he didn't press it. However Elsa didn't have much time to think about this as a bleeping sound from Rush's console interrupted the silence that had spread in the room.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”

“What's going on?”, Elsa asked.

“Someone's dialing the gate.” Rush raced out of the room with the other four immediately following behind.

* * *

When the five of them reached the gate room its name giver was already dialing. And dialing in this case meant that the complete gate was spinning not merely a part of it. The gate just slowed down as they entered and at the top a little bearing lit up and the symbol below it as well. Then the gate started to spin in the opposite direction. Turning her gaze towards the consoles she noticed Lieutenant Scott, Sergeants Riley and Greer and to her surprise Colonel Young who was leaning on a crutch that looked like one of the rifles. She shouldn't have been surprised however considering that he would be the only one who'd order to dial out.

“Colonel Young, you're up”, Rush said at least with mock surprise.

“Nice to see you, too, Rush. I did order you to report to me”, the Colonel Young said without turning towards the scientist who positioned himself between the officer and the gate.

“Yes”, Rush dismissed. “Wh-wh-what are you doing?”

“We're trying to dial Earth.”

_Oh boy._

“That would be a mistake.”

“Riley thinks he's found the address for home.”

“His understanding of Ancient is marginal at best”, Rush scorned in the direction of the Sergeant. Elsa sighed mentally. It would really be better if he'd appreciate other people's skills.

“With respect, Doctor, I know enough to recognize a reference to Earth”, Riley defended.

“He says the address wasn't that hard to find, Rush!” Finally the Colonel turned around to look at Rush.

“No, no. This is a complete waste of power we may need.”

“We have the address back. All we need is the right point of origin”, Scott remarked.

“And we've got 36 tries”, Colonel Young continued. Elsa suspected that he meant that the gate had 36 symbols. But then it would even be only 28 tries, because 8 symbols would already be used up by the remainder of the address. Before she could remark this Rush had already continued.

“We barely have enough power to operate the main systems! This ship simply doesn't have the capability to dial Earth.”

“You see, that's news to me.”

“He didn't tell us that either”, Eli said pointing to him, Elsa, Brody and Park.

“Well, I've only just learned myself.” Rush pointed accusingly at Eli. “And you know what I've been doing.”

“Even if it doesn't work, the people aboard this ship need to see us at least try.”

“So, what, you're going to drain what little power we have for the sake of morale? How ridiculous.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, he's right, Colonel”, Elsa said. “Dialing Earth needs an immense amount of power and what if... no, when we run out of it? We'll be dead in the water. With no power we won't have shields, weapons and even much less life support than we have right now.”

Suddenly a low humming noise occurred that got louder and a distortion effect shortly occurred around them. It was similar to shortly after they had arrived on the ship. That reminded Elsa that she had wanted to ask Rush about how the ship's traveling if it's not using hyperspace.

“What was that?”, Scott asked confused.

Elsa turned to look at the Stargate which had reset itself into an idle position with all lights disabled again.

“Anyone near the observation deck?” Elsa looked at Young again who had spoken into his radio.

There was a short pause upon which TJ's voice came out of the device. _“Colonel, it looks like we've dropped out of FTL.”_ FTL... Elsa suspected that this stood for Faster-Than-Light. So the ship was in fact traveling in normal space, but faster than light? Without taking a shortcut through hyperspace? Elsa wasn't an astrophysicist, but she was immediately intrigued by that thought.

“Because we were draining power?”, Eli asked.

“No, no, if I'm right, the gate will begin to dial any moment.” And just with that the chevrons on the Stargate lit up and it started to spin.

“How did you know that?”, Scott questioned.

“The ship detected a Stargate on a planet within range that may have what we need.”

“What?”, Colonel Young asked incredulously. “How the hell are there even Stargates out here?”

“The Ancients sent out a number of unmanned ships ahead of this one. They're programmed to gather data, resources, to manufacture Stargates and deposit them in habitable worlds. Any relevant information is relayed back here to help plot the course.” Elsa's mind went into overdrive once she had heard the expression 'manufacture Stargates'. Could this really be? Automated ships that constructed Stargates? That would have been a dream come true!

“You're telling me that this ship knows we're in trouble?”

“Yes, because I told it we were!”, Rush replied impatiently. “Essentially we're flying on auto-pilot. This ship may have stopped when it was within range of a Stargate regardless of our need, but I have reason to believe...”

Everyone stepped back a bit as the Stargate activated. The unstable vortex soon enough stabilized into the usual puddle which looked more silver than the usual blue in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies. Elsa also took the time to take in the symbols on the gate. Unlike on the other two gate variants that she knew about these glyphs didn't seem to represent constellations. They looked more like code sequences consisting of dashes, tildes, filled dots and hollow ones and considering that she had just learned that other ships in front of _Destiny_ had been placing Stargates on planets for millennia and billions of light years it made even more sense.

“So, what we need is on the other side of that wormhole”, Young finished the thought that Rush had started.

“An educated guess, yes.”

“There's only one way to find out.” The Colonel started to limp towards the Stargate.

“Sir, you can't do that. We have no idea what's on the other side”, Riley tried to stop his superior officer.

“We can use the Kino to find out”, Eli piped in excitedly and immediately steered the Kino he must have brought with him from the control room towards the Stargate.

“I expect that's the purpose of this device”, Rush surmised.

Elsa headed towards the unoccupied console just before the Kino went through the event horizon.

“I'm getting readings over here”, she said.

“What have we got?”, the Colonel asked.

She took in a quick overview of the console's data which included a video feed of the Kino. “Temperature, gravity, atmosphere composition, barometric pressure... Basically everything we need to determine whether the planet is viable. I read oxygen, nitrogen, very little CO2, extremely low humidity. Habitable, but just barely.”

“Good enough”, Rush said.

“Looks like four other addresses came up here, too”, Dr. Brody said from the console Riley was standing behind of. Rush went to check this. “They could be other planets within range. Maybe we should think about dialing them up and seeing-” However Rush interrupted him after the former had taken a look at the console's readings.

“No, no. They're locked out. The ship chose this one, the Stargate is open, all we have to do is step through.”

“What we have to do is put a team together”, Young said firmly.

“Dr. Rush.” Lisa Park was looking at a spot above the door behind them. What they saw appeared to be a countdown in Ancient scripture.

“Looks like our time might be limited”, Rush encountered.

“What is it?”, Young asked.

“It's a countdown. Just over twelve hours left.”

“What happens then?”

“I suspect we jump back into FTL.”

And everyone not back at that time would be stranded on the planet.

* * *

They had all gathered again in the Interface Control Room together with some other scientists and military personnel.

“Palmer is a geologist”, Rush gestured to a woman with long, wavy, blonde hair. She was the same that earlier that day had mocked Rush's order to stay put until there would be something useful for them to do. “Obviously she should go. Elsa's expertise obviously won't be needed on the planet. Franklin and Brody are the best of the rest of what we have.”

“Thanks for the ringing endorsement”, Franklin said sarcastically.

“He didn't even mention me”, Dale Volker complained. His right arm resided in a sling.

“Franklin goes, the others stay. We're still going to need good people working on the problem from this end”, Colonel Young ordered to which Rush merely nodded.

“I'd like to go”, Eli said from the other side of the room from which he had been taking pictures with his cell phone.

“Really?”

“I-if I can help, then-”

“Colonel Young, please”, Rush said scornfully to the officer.

“What? You don't think I can handle it?” The young man pointed at Doctor Franklin. “H-he's going!”

“I've been off world before!”

“You have made a habit out of pulling our asses out of the fire”, the Colonel said. “Eli, you want to go, you're going. The only one I am questioning right now is, uh, you, Dr. Rush.”

The mentioned one scoffed. “Well, besides Palmer, I'm the only one who knows what we're looking for. We have twelve hours to find what we need and then get back on the ship.”

“You sure you can't stop it?”

“No, we're just along for the ride for now.”

“Well, then we all may be better off on the planet.”

“Well, that's another reason why I should go”, Rush encountered with a cold smile. “Someone to assess whether long-term survival there is even an option.”

“Right. Okay. I want everyone clear that Scott is in charge of this mission. Let's gear up, let's find whatever supplies we have, and move out.” With that everyone except Elsa, Brody, Park, Scott and Young filed out. While the former three would continue to work on the ship and hopefully find something in the ship's database the Colonel had been stopped by his Lieutenant and the two were talking in a low voice. Elsa however didn't have an interest in what the two were talking about anyway. Her task was to find anything in the database that might help them with the CO2 scrubbers. And it would be best for all of them if she found it before the twelve hours were up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first visit of Ascended!Anna, yay! For sure it won't be the last. ;)
> 
> At first I planned Elsa to witness the senator's death from the control room, together with Eli and Rush, but then the idea with Elsa's own plan occured to me and thus I sent her off to the shuttle as well. Didn't work out for her though...
> 
> Air, part 3 will likely come up either on 16th or 17th February. :)
> 
> Update: A few small fixes like again writing Atlantis in italic, Elsa's family name including her honorific and Elsa's age.


	4. Air, part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since most of the action in Air, part 3 is taking place either on the desert planet or on Earth and Elsa doesn't go to either of the two I had the nice opportunity to have a nearly completely freestyle chapter (only one scene is from the episode itself). ;) I hope you enjoy it is much as I did writing it. :D
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

Elsa had around half an hour of quiet staring at the console before Lisa Park entered the control room and checked something at one of the consoles. She had left the room a while earlier to see the team off to the desert planet.

“Umm, Elsa?”, she suddenly spoke. Elsa looked up.

“Yes, Lisa?”

“I know that we have more important matters, but...” Lisa hesitated a bit. “Your makeup is still smudged and it honestly looks a bit creepy.”

“Faen!”, Elsa cursed in Norwegian. “I totally forgot. Thank you for reminding me.” She took a look at the console again. Still no relevant results found. How huge was that database? Or didn't she use the correct search terms? It likely wouldn't change anything if she'd go for a few minutes and fix her makeup.

“If somebody looks for me, I'm in my quarters.” Elsa just wanted to walk out of the room when Dr. Park interrupted her.

“And where are those?”

Elsa sighed. She really wasn't her usually collected and correct self today. Either it was the unusual environment or the growing headache because of the increasing levels of CO2 in the air. Probably it was both. She went back to her console and marked her quarters on a new overlay for the ship's map.

“I've started an overlay for marking quarters of the crew. Maybe you can get others to add in theirs. It's labeled 'crew quarters'. Now, excuse me, please.” The blonde left the room and went straight for her quarters.

* * *

After having arrived there Elsa grabbed her backpack that still stood next to the door and put it on one of the stools next to the table to unpack its contents. She put the two laptops, any electronic utensil and the books including the photo album on the desk and rummaged through the remainder of the pack. Soon after she had what she needed: a bottle of makeup remover and some cotton rounds. She walked towards the mirror she had noticed earlier. Like on the windows the outer edge was obscured by a patina, but for now it would suffice.

When the woman saw her reflection inside the mirror she nearly broke out in laughter. She really was a creepy sight with those black streams that had flown from her eyes along her cheeks. She briefly wondered why no one else had dared to comment on her makeup.

She placed her glasses on the table and with a trained hand she removed any traces of makeup that she had on her skin in turn revealing the young face that belonged to her just as her powers did. She wondered when she'd again be able to show her true face among the people. For nearly 150 years she had hidden herself from humanity and she was sick of it. She knew the reasons why she did it and she still considered them sound, but that didn't change how she felt about it.

Elsa sighed and went to her bag to search for new makeup to apply. There was her emergency wash bag in which she knew wasn't any makeup, a skirt about which she wondered how that ended up in the backpack, a towel, a brush and her emergency clothes. But no makeup. She thought back to her quarters on the base and where she had kept her makeup. It had been on a rack with other mostly unimportant stuff – at least for the evacuation – and she remembered that she hadn't bothered with that rack at all.

_Great job, Elsa_ , she thought and rested her head on her right hand. It seemed that she would get her wish sooner than she thought. Maybe the gloomy lighting conditions on the ship would help her to disguise herself a bit longer though.

She picked up her glasses again and decided to go for a little walk before returning to the control room and her search tasks that were likely still running. 

* * *

At first Elsa was walking aimlessly until she had gotten the idea to finally visit the observation deck. She went from the corridor that went along the room into the observation deck and immediately froze. On the other side of the room were three enormous windows that occupied the complete side. She guessed that it were nearly ten meters in total. In front of the windows was a railing of around one meter height. A bit left and right of the center near the railing were two massive, yet elegantly sloped columns that supported the ceiling. On the right side of the room she could see a table with a few chairs and a lounge for around three people. The left area was occupied by what appeared to be a bar. There was also a smaller table accompanied by a few lounge chairs. In the center, not far away from the columns was a bench.

Even more impressive than the room itself was the view out of the windows. Elsa could see an orange glowing, massive nebula in the distance amid the sea of stars the ship was lost in. At the lower part of her view she could also see the bow of the ship. She knew from schematics that it was shaped like an arrow when seen from above with convex curves on the left and right and a slightly concave curve on the back where its engines resided. The surface of the ship she could see in front of her was covered in various brown to dark gray, metallic structures the purpose of which she could merely guess.

And Elsa wasn't alone. Only now did she really notice the person standing at the railing behind one of the columns. She had long, black hair and was wearing a pink coat. It was Chloe Armstrong. Elsa wanted to turn around and leave the young woman alone when she remembered what she had said to Chloe's father right before his passing. No, she wouldn't go back on her word.

Slowly she moved towards the railing, circumventing the bench on her way there, and stopped in the middle of the railing with around two meters distance to Chloe. Placing her hands on the metallic surface and gazing at the nebula she thought how she would best approach the topic. Luckily for her the other woman went first.

“It's beautiful, isn't it?”, Chloe asked and Elsa could hear her voice still shaking. Elsa wanted to reply something, but Chloe continued before she had the chance. “How can something so beautiful be so dangerous?”

Elsa gulped. _Beautiful, powerful, dangerous, cold._ She hadn't ever thought about space this way, but only about her powers, a long time ago. Back then she had been afraid of herself, of her potential to hurt others, to hurt her sister. But she had learned to master it, to control it, to not have herself consumed by fear. She didn't fear space however, despite it being even more deadly than her ice.

“Only because something is dangerous does not mean that we should fear it. As long as we respect it and are aware that every step we take could backlash we shouldn't be afraid to revel in its beauty”, Elsa said after a few seconds.

“I miss him.”

“I know how you feel. In my live I have witnessed many deaths. The close ones were the worst.”

“How do you cope with it?”

“I live on.” Chloe finally turned away from the scenery outside the ship and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Don't get me wrong. I miss all of them dearly, but they wouldn't want me to mourn their loss for the remainder of my life. They'd want me to honor their legacy, to keep them in my heart so that I can relish the memories of them when I feel happy and to have the memories encourage me when I'm at my worst. They wouldn't want me to stop leading my live because of their passing.”

Elsa could see the words sinking into Chloe's consciousness just as she could see her eyes glancing over again. What she didn't expect however was that the young woman tackled her into a hug, threw her arms around Elsa's neck and began to cry onto her shoulder. The blonde was shocked for a moment, but then she put her arms around the other's body and gently stroked her back. Between sobs she could hear sentences like “It hurts so much”. For a while Elsa continued with her petting until she remembered something from a time long ago when she had thought she had lost the one person she had held most dear. Softly Elsa began to sing.

“ _Sadness swirls within me like the snow. I've frozen out the only friend I'll ever know. There's no way I can win, but I wish that I had been there for her long ago. Life's too short.”_

She could feel the girl in her arms calming down again. She hadn't expected that this little song she had come up with all those years ago when she was sitting in her own dungeon would help her to calm down a woman that has lost her father on a spaceship billions of light years from Earth. Then again she hadn't expected back then to find a way to control her powers. Life for sure was a strange thing and at least for her definitely not short.

A few more minutes passed until Chloe slowly broke away from Elsa. She could see the tears that had flown down the young woman's cheeks seconds ago. Now and then there was still a sob, but it seemed she had cried the worst out of her body. Only time would tell though how she would cope with this.

“Thank you, Elsa.”

“It was nothing.”

“I... I think I'll go to my quarters now.”

“If you need someone to talk to, you can come to me, no questions asked.”

A little smile spread on Chloe's face and Elsa reached for one of Chloe's hands to gently squeeze it, to show her that she was really here. She would be the stable mountain amidst this raging blizzard for this woman. At least she would try.

Wiping away her tears Chloe left the observation deck. Elsa's gaze lingered for a while on the now empty door frame before she looked back out into the darkness that was filled with light. She got lost in her thoughts again. _There's beauty and there's danger here._

* * *

After a while Elsa had found the will to continue her way to the Interface Control Room. On her way there however she passed the open doors of a room that she hadn't seen yet. Not that she had seen every room that was currently accessible, but the room itself looked different from mere crew quarters. There were various beds of around one to one and a half meter height in the room with racks filled with unknown devices on the head of the bed. Entering the room she noticed a few desks and tables that were distributed among the room. In front of one of the desks the ship's medic was sitting and sifted through what looked like their medical supplies. A smile spread on Elsa's face. Of course there would have been an infirmary on the ship.

She knocked on the metal frame of the door upon which Tamara Johansen looked up into her direction.

“I see that you found an infirmary”, Elsa said once she had the attention of the other woman.

“Yes.” TJ smiled though it was a tired smile. “I don't know the meaning of most of the devices though.” She gestured towards the beds.

“Once we've solved the air problem I'm sure that there'll be the one or two of the engineers who will help you.”

“If we solve it, Elsa. It's getting harder and harder to breathe by the minute. In a few hours we won't be able to do much work anymore.”

“Now let's not get pessimistic, shall we? I'm sure that the team on the planet will find something and I haven't given up hope to find something in the ship's stores.”

“At least one of us hasn't lost her optimism then.” The woman who was in her early thirties sighed and buried her head in her hands. After a few seconds she looked up again. “What am I even doing here? I should be in Seattle for two weeks, teaching classes. And yet I'm on the other side of the universe and additionally I'm thrown into the role of a doctor which I don't know enough about. I'm merely a medic.” TJ seemed close to tears. Elsa walked over behind the other woman and began to gently massage her shoulders. The effect was immediate. Elsa could feel the body below her relax significantly. Elsa grinned. It seemed that someone was a savorer.

“I can't tell you why you're here and not in Seattle”, Elsa began after a few minutes of silence which had only been disturbed by noises that sounded like purring from Tamara's direction. “But you're here and among all of us you are the person with the most medical knowledge and experience. It will be hard, I'm sure. We're short on supplies, we don't know the devices here and what dangers might lie beyond the gate. But I'm confident that we'll pull through this, that you will pull through this. You must not fear your lack of knowledge, instead you should be eager to fight it.” Elsa remembered her own past with this. She not only had feared her powers, but she also had feared that she didn't know anything about them. And while she had learned to control them it had taken a while more till she learned that she didn't need to fear the unknown either. In a way this was also similar to her first weeks of regency. Her father and her tutors had prepared her for her future as good as they could, but they couldn't prepare her with experience. She had needed to tackle this on her own once she had thawed her kingdom and had one worry off her back. And she had managed to do it, with as much confidence as the young monarch could muster back then.

“Thank you, Elsa”, TJ said softly and seemingly content in the situation she was in right now. Elsa smiled and slowly ceased her massaging.

“You're welcome.” She stepped away a bit from the other woman. “You know what we'll be doing once we've solved our breathing problem? I will ask Colonel Young to allow you access to the communication stones with a higher priority so that you can take medical lessons on Earth to increase your skills.”

TJ got up from her seat and hugged Elsa. “Thank you!” Elsa returned the hug and shortly after the two broke away from each other again. Elsa could see that Tamara's eyes had glazed over, but she also smiled.

“You'll be okay?”, Elsa asked.

“Yeah.” She wiped away any wetness that might have started to leave her eyes, then focused on Elsa's face. “You look quite refreshed, you know that? It seems as if you look ten years younger.”

_Oh no. Think, Elsa, think!_ “I... uh...”

Just in this moment someone appeared in the door frame. It was Colonel Young accompanied by Chloe.

“I hope I don't interrupt anything?”, he asked.

“No, sir, we're just done”, TJ replied after a short hesitation.

“Good. TJ, I want you to come with me and Chloe. I'm going to report to Earth and I need you to take care of whoever happens to take control of my body.”

“Understood”, the medic said and with a last judging look at Elsa's face she left the infirmary.

That had been a close call. It was clear now that she couldn't hide herself forever. But she'd prefer not to confront the others with the truth while they were amidst a life or death situation. Also she still wanted to postpone it as long as she could.

She took a deep breath and reeled in her thoughts again. She thought back to the two discussions she just had. It seemed that she'd become the counselor of this ship. And if she added Eli to this mix maybe their mentor or what seemed more appropriate considering the age difference between her and the others some kind of motherly figure. Keeping in mind that she had never had a child herself that thought stirred her maternal instincts. With a grin she shook her head. Likely the CO2 was getting to her head. She left the infirmary and finally went back to the control room.

* * *

Once Elsa entered the Interface Control Room she was immediately greeted by Lisa Park.

“Hi again, Elsa. I see you've fixed your makeup?” Elsa just wanted to confirm the other woman's question when she continued. “You look good.” It wasn't merely the sentence itself that confused her, but more so the intonation. It sounded as if Lisa had been a kitten that was ready to jump at her prey. Was she flirting with Elsa?

“Th-thank you”, Elsa stuttered and went straight for her console. Not now. Not in this situation. There were more important things to do. Like saving everyone's lives aboard.

She looked at her console and her eyes went wide. There was a search result! It was the name of the compound the Ancients apparently used to fill the CO2 scrubbers in the first place. With it was a list of attributes of the compound that her search queries had reacted to. Elsa selected the entry so that she would see more details. According to the time stamp the entry was found around half an hour ago. That must have been shortly after she had entered the observation deck. Hopefully she hadn't wasted important time with her detour there and to the infirmary. The entry also listed the amount of which _Destiny_ had been shipped with and it should be more then enough if the stuff had been packaged correctly. With a few further commands she checked where she would find this magic compound and as she looked at the map her heart sank. Most of it was located in holds that were in those areas of the ship that they didn't have access to. A smaller amount however was available in a cargo hold that was accessible to them. For now it would need to suffice. First she'd need to find it however. It would be best to ask Colonel Young to give her a small search group so that they could find the material faster.

Elsa just wanted to turn when said person entered the room, alongside Chloe and TJ. But something about the Colonel looked different. His whole posture was different, but more importantly his eyes moved among the details and occupants of the room like the eyes of a bird of prey. Colonel Young normally had a certain warmth in his eyes, but these eyes had a calculating cold. These were Colonel Telford's eyes, no doubt. Remembering that Young had wanted to report to Earth she assumed that it was indeed Telford that was looking around the room and that she didn't just imagine it. She honestly couldn't stand the man. He had made advances on her once, but she had declined him. He hadn't bothered her anymore, but she had always noticed the greedy looks he had given her. If she wouldn't have the ability to defend herself she wouldn't want to be in the same room with him alone. Thankfully she didn't need to think about this as she wasn't alone.

“This is the Interface Control Room. We discovered that for now it's one of the rooms with the best access to the ship's systems”, TJ explained to Colonel Telford and whoever inhabited Chloe's body. “Elsa, Dr. Park, Colonel Young and Chloe are using the communication stones. These are Colonel Telford and Dr. Mehta. Dr. Mehta, these are Dr. Lisa Park and Elsa Agdarsdatter.” The Colonel and the Doctor nodded towards Elsa and Lisa and the two women in turn nodded back.

“Did you find anything that can help to solve the air problems”, Colonel Telford asked.

“No, sir”, Dr. Park answered first.

“Not yet, sir”, Elsa lied with a neutral poker face. She wouldn't dare to tell him the truth. He wasn't the one who was physically here on this ship and the only military officer she would respond to right now was Colonel Young, the real Colonel Young.

“Keep working.” The Colonel turned around and left the room together with Dr. Mehta and TJ.

“Somehow I'm glad that he didn't come through the gate with us”, Elsa confessed after she was sure that the group was out of hearing range.

“Yeah, I can understand that. That guy is giving me the creeps”, Lisa replied.

“A pity though that Colonel Young won't be here for quite some time. I've found that there is some of the substance we need in a cargo hold in the area accessible to us.”

“You lied to Colonel Telford?!”, Lisa asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, I did and I don't regret it.” Elsa grinned. “I'll go and take a look at this cargo hold. Hopefully I can find something without a big search team. Otherwise I'll need to wait until Colonel Young is back.” Taking one last look at the map she left the control room.

* * *

It didn't take Elsa long to reach the elevator that should take her to the deck the cargo hold was on. She pressed the button outside its door and waited. However the door did not open. Maybe because the elevator had been defective. She didn't want to wait for one of the engineers to take a look at it, especially since she didn't have a radio and thus would need to walk back to one of the occupied areas. She looked around and noticed a ladder that went straight from one deck to the next. It seemed that she'd need to do this the hard way. Carefully the woman climbed down the old ladder which at least appeared more firm than some of the outer hull of the ship.

Three decks later she had reached the cargo hold's deck and first needed to pause. It wasn't lacking physical exercise however that forced her to stop – even without any training on Icarus base she was still in pretty good shape – but the increasing amount of CO2. In this area the air seemed even worse than in the areas near the gate room. Likely the CO2 scrubber that sustained this area was far worse off than the others.

After a few minutes she had collected herself enough to continue her journey and a short walk later she stood in front of the bulkhead door of the cargo hold and pressed the button on the door control. To her great relief the door opened and revealed a dark room. The lights of the corridor didn't reach far into it, but she could make out two rows of crates in front of her that stretched into the distance. Each row seemed to have a height of three crates each whereby each crate had a size of around one meter on each side.

Elsa looked at the sides of the door frame she stood in and noticed a switch next to the inner door control that hopefully was the light switch. She pressed it and saw as all the lights in the room came on with a buzzing sound. The more light flooded the room the more her hope sank. Despite being one of the smaller cargo holds it was still around 25 meters long and 12 wide. The rows of crates continued all the way back into the depths of the room. To the right side of the door was merely one row of crates after which the room ended with one meter to spare. To the left were five rows. Thus the door wasn't located at the center of the room's side.

Feeling small she first peeked behind the row to her right and upon seeing nothing but the wall of the room and the row of crates she turned around and looked between the other gaps between the rows. How should she find the scrubber compound in here? With her powers she would have been able to reach the topmost crates, yes, but moving them around was an entirely different topic. Additionally she'd need a bit of space to put the crates on she'd move around. It seemed however that the Ancients had thought of this as the last row of crates she inspected didn't occupy the whole 25 meters to the back, but stopped around 5 meters before that. She also noticed a console at the far side of the room.

Carefully looking at the crates Elsa walked along the row towards this console. The crates stood directly next to each other with nearly no gap between them. The base unit seemed to indeed be a bit more than one meter, but some crates were two of these base units long and fewer even three. Maybe they contained bigger equipment that couldn't be packaged into the smaller crates.

Upon reaching the console she switched it on and was greeted by a list of goods that were contained in this cargo hold. Having remembered the name of the compound she found out quite fast that indeed some of it was contained in this cargo hold, but with no apparent information about its exact location. On the side of the screen there was however a highlighted option to retrieve a selected good. So Elsa selected the needed compound and confirmed that she wanted to retrieve it.

Once she had pressed the button she could hear a strange noise from above her. She looked up and noticed what seemed to be a crane that could move along the whole of the cargo hold. Elsa smirked. So that was how it worked. The system knew where each good was and so it was the system's job to rearrange the crates to get whatever good a user needed.

Her grin however didn't last long as she noticed that the crane didn't move. Now that she thought about it the sound that she was hearing sounded extremely like an electric motor that didn't have any grip. She looked back at the screen and her suspicion was confirmed as she saw a notice that read 'malfunction' in Ancient.

_Better call in the cavalry now._ While she did have a bit of experience with electric motors out of curiosity she had no clue how Ancient motors worked nor did she have the ability to concentrate good enough right now to figure it out herself.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later she was back in the gate room. Dr. Brody and Sergeant Riley were standing at one of the consoles and Lisa Park was standing at the other one. A few soldiers were in the room as well.

“Is Colonel Young back from Earth again?”, Elsa asked as she entered.

“In theory, yes”, Sergeant Riley replied. “At least Chloe is herself again, but the Colonel was drugged by TJ after Colonel Telford overused his injured body.”

She just wanted to ask Dr. Brody whether he would come with her to the cargo hold to repair the crane when the Stargate lit up. It began to rotate and after one rotation it stopped again and the wormhole appeared with a clicking sound followed by the usual outbreak of the unstable vortex. Brody and Riley both left the console to walk towards the gate and the soldiers in the room positioned themselves in defensive stances.

Through the gate appeared Dr. Rush carrying along Dr. Franklin who seemed to be unconscious with a wound on his right shoulder.

“Here they are”, Riley said and he, Brody and some soldiers hurried towards the two newcomers.

“Hurry up. Hurry up”, she heard one of the soldiers say as they helped Rush to lower Franklin onto the floor. “Come on, help him, help him.”

“What happened?”, another soldier asked.

“Greer... Greer shoot him”, Rush replied panting heavily. “Water.” He hold out his hand in the hope of getting a canteen of water. “Water.” Riley handed him his from which Rush drank greedily.

TJ also came running into the room and immediately attended to the wounded man on the floor.

“That was my ration for the day”, Riley commented as Rush had nearly emptied his bottle. The Sergeant took back his flask and walked back towards the consoles.

“What's going on?” This question had come from Colonel Young who had entered the room supporting himself on the rifle he used as a crutch.

With a sound of collapsing waves the gate shut down.

“We've had a lovely day at the beach”, Rush joked. Behind him the Stargate vented steam into the room with a hissing noise. “How about you?”

“Why is Franklin wounded?”

“He, Palmer and Curtis wanted to go to one of the other planets.” Curtis must have been one of the soldiers. “Eli couldn't stop the other two so I had Greer shoot Franklin so that we don't loose the remote.” He paused a bit. “And him.”

“Can we dial the other planets?”, the Colonel asked into the direction of the two consoles.

“Not right now, no”, Dr. Brody supplied.

“Then dial Eli. Tell him to dial the planet they went to and to check in on Curtis and Palmer.”

“Yes, sir”, Sergeant Riley replied.

“Colonel, may I speak to you, please?”, Elsa asked just as the Colonel wanted to leave the gate room again.

“Of course. How can I help you?”, he asked. As the only one on this ship who knew about her powers as well as her real age he had a certain respect for her. Precisely what she didn't want, but what she always got when she needed to reveal herself.

“I have found some of the compound we need in one of the cargo holds we have access to.” She saw a glimmer of hope in the Colonel's eyes, so she felt bad for having to crush it again. “However the room operates automatically and the crane that is needed to move the crates seems to have a defect.”

“Dr. Brody, would you or some other engineer lend Elsa a hand to repair a crane in one of the cargo holds?”

“Yes, Colonel. I'll grab my gear.”

“I should also mention that the hold can only be reached by a ladder currently. And the air conditions are even worse than here”, Elsa mentioned, looking from the Colonel to Brody.

“Okay. You both get out of there if it should get worse, understood?”

“Yes, sir”, both Brody and Elsa confirmed.

“Here, take a radio, just in case.” The Colonel handed the blonde one of the said devices which she hung onto one of the belt loops of her jeans.

* * *

It took Dr. Brody a while to collect all tools that he might need to repair the Ancient motor, but half an hour later the two of them were standing on the hold's floor again, pausing to collect themselves.

“Thank you for relieving me from 'gate duty'. An electro motor is just what I need as a distraction”, Brody said once he was able to breath more or less normally again.

“You're welcome”, Elsa replied with a grin. “We should however restrict our talking to the necessary so we don't spend too much air.” He merely nodded in response and Elsa led the both of them to the cargo hold.

Once they had entered the door she could see how the engineer's eyes went wide. That had been her reaction as well. So many crates with so much Ancient stuff. A dream come true and yet the sheer mass of crates made one pale at the same time considering that they needed to find a needle in a haystack.

“Up there”, Elsa pointed towards the crane.

They walked to the console were Elsa had repeated her request of the compound so that Brody could hear for himself the noises of the motionless motor. Now they just needed to reach the motor. They looked around the row of crates next to the wall and noticed a ladder reaching up towards the crane's moving platform. That made it easier. While the man climbed up towards the crane Elsa positioned herself at the console so that she could initiate the request again if he notified her. The system itself meanwhile had given up again to move the crane and thus the only sound that could be heard in the room aside from the omnipresent, low and humming noise of the ship were Brody's steps on the ladder.

Because of the position of the motors behind the supporting bars of the crane Elsa couldn't see much of Brody's work, but she could hear it. Noises that she associated with an engineer at the work without a doubt. In the meanwhile she decided to take a look at the list of goods again. Maybe something they could use hid itself in there. She saw an entry mentioning clothes upon which Elsa smirked that it was probably the usual, standard white garb of the Ancients. While she wasn't a fan of these – she had seen them once when she saw the Asurans that had invaded _Atlantis_ – it was better than nothing considering that most of them merely had the clothes they wore or happened to bring along with them. Elsa herself merely had a few undergarments, night clothes and exercising clothes that were part of her emergency supply bag and that skirt that for some reason found its way into her bag. Then again she would be able to create clothes for herself if the need should arise. She just hoped that there was some place on the ship to clean the crew's clothes.

Reading further she saw that there also seemed to be a supply of seeds. Now the Arboretum room made even more sense. She'd definitely need to show this to Dr. Park. The woman would probably kiss her for this news and Elsa didn't know whether she'd like that or not. If given the choice she definitely preferred women, but considering her immortality she didn't like the idea to enter a relationship to just see the other one age and die.

Next up came an item that roughly translated as 'I repair'. According to the description attached to the entry it was some kind of repair robot that might be able to repair the hull breaches. Once they managed to find it. She glanced up at Brody who still seemed to work at the crane's drive.

Another entry was about some kind of medical bed that seemed to be able to heal injuries. Now that would be pretty neat especially considering that they were low on any medicine that there was. And each and every injury would strain these resources further. Again they would need to have the crane repaired to find it. Though most likely this bed was in one of the larger boxes. If only there was some possibility to find out what the system knew about the crate's positions.

_Wait a minute._ Elsa didn't know whether it was the lack of oxygen or the stress of the day as a whole that made her forget what she was good at: working with and inside computer programs. She had a master's degree in computer science and more experience than anyone else on this ship. And the information about each crate's location had to be somewhere inside the computer right in front of her!

She went to work right away, but the console was stubborn. It didn't give her access to any of its backing databases. Elsa wanted to hit the console's frame in frustration when she noticed something that looked suspiciously like an access port. And to her delight it even looked like one of the usual Ancient access ports. Something like an Ancient version of USB Elsa had often joked as these ports were available on _Atlantis_ as well and were useful for various tasks. Now all she needed was her laptop and her breakout cable with the adapters.

“Brody?”, she called the engineer up on the crane.

“Yes?”

“I have a backup plan in case you can't manage to repair the crane. I'll be in my quarters quickly and be back as fast as I can. You'll be okay?”

“Yeah, I will.”

“Good. See you soon.”

* * *

It had taken Elsa nearly half an hour to reach her quarters, stuff her laptop and the breakout cable into the backpack and to come back to the cargo hold. That included the necessary breaks to catch her breath, because of the air.

“I'm back”, she said into the direction of the crane. “Any progress?”

“Not yet, though I have a clue”, came the reply.

She put her laptop next to the console, powered it on and logged in. Then she used one of the adapters of the breakout cable to connect the access port with the USB port of her laptop. The custom hardware drivers, which she had to develop for her trusty four year old PowerBook, came to life and soon after they announced that they had connected to something that identified – in Ancient – as 'Cargo Hold 3, main console'. In addition a warning appeared that told her that the used protocol was an old version that was not properly supported, because no where on any Ancient outpost they had encountered a version of that protocol as old as this. She'd need to cross her fingers that at least the base commands were the same. Elsa wasn't in the mood to debug the drivers just now. She checked what kind of services the console provided over the access port and to her satisfaction the request was answered without error. The console claimed to support both shell as well as file access. She connected to the console's remote terminal which luckily didn't require her to enter a password or some other means of authentication. A quick check of the running processes revealed one she was looking for. After all 'crate database' sounded rather suspicious. Using a bit of her experience to navigate the Ancient operating system that at its core seemed to be the same the much younger _Atlantis_ computers were based on she was able to locate the database file and to copy it to her laptop using the file access service.

With the help of a tool to handle Ancient database files she was able to view its contents. Though again she got the warning that the version was older than what the tool knew about and that she would have to proceed with caution. If they all managed to survive this she'd definitely need to improve the tools and the drivers so that they would work even with this ancient variant of Ancient soft- and hardware. Elsa glanced at the battery indicator. Of course these improvements would only be of use if she'd find a way to charge her laptop, because in one and a half hour it would merely be a fancy paper weight. She reduced the backlight as much as possible and switched the laptop to a low energy mode. That gained her another quarter of an hour.

Without hesitation she began to analyze the database she had gotten hold off. Sadly her tool didn't support the format of the data's names so she needed to rely on the data values alone. So she first looked for the name and description of the scrubber compound which would help her to find the unique identification number of the corresponding database entry. With that she could check the other tables which would hopefully reveal first the identification entry of the crate and then the location. Or alternatively that in a specific location that specific crate was located. The identification number of the compound was easy to find, but the next step in her argumentation proved difficult as the number appeared multiple times in the database. Probably some additional accounting.

“Elsa, please try it again”, Brody requested after around ten minutes of her working on the database.

“Do you think it's safe for you up there?”

“We don't have time for me to climb up and down, just do it.” He sounded harsh, but it was probably because of the air.

The blonde reached for the console, selected the CO2 scrubber compound and confirmed the retrieval. “Done.”

She heard the sound of the motor again, but it sounded different this time. Not like the useless spinning as before, but more melodic. And sure enough the crane started to move to the left and away from her. Both her and Brody wanted to shout out in joy when a loud thud occurred. The crane stopped suddenly with the engineer nearly falling down of it.

“Brody!”

The engineer had managed to grab a hold of the supporting bar of the crane. Slowly he lifted himself up. Panting heavily he lay down on the crane's platform.

“Are you all right?”

“Y-yes. Just out of breath.”

After a few minutes of heavy breathing he was collected enough to take a look at the crane again.

“Bad news. One of the gears has broken. I don't think I'll be able to fix it now. Not with that little amount of oxygen that we have left.”

A thought occurred to Elsa. “With the gear fixed it would work, yes?”

“Probably.” That was good enough. “But I don't have the right materials and tools to do that right now.”

“Then head back to the gate room, please. I'll try to put my backup plan to work.”

“Even if you find the correct crate, how will you be able to open it? It will either be at the top or in between. Both are equally unreachable without the crane.”

“I'll call for backup then. Till then it would be best if only I use up oxygen down here.”

“Okay then.” He slowly moved back to the wall along the crane's platform and down the ladder. “Take care and good luck.”

“I will and thank you.”

Elsa waited a little while until she was sure that the man had left the area. She then climbed up the crane's ladder and went to where the crane had broken down. Breathing heavily she took in the cog wheels that were part of the crane until she noticed one that was split in half. Carefully she removed both pieces and studied them as intensively as possible. She then concentrated on the vacant axis and let her powers flow. It was much more straining than she was used to, but in the end she had pulled it off. A cog wheel made out of the hardest and most stable ice she was able to conjure under the current conditions was sitting on the axis fitting snugly into the neighboring gears. She walked back to the wall, nearly losing her balance once out of dizziness and climbed down the ladder again. Without any further hesitation to collect her breath she went to the console and requested the material again.

Like before the crane started to move again, but this time it did not break down. The crane went left till it had reached the fourth row and lowered itself to grab a crate. It then moved up again and placed the crate without any gap next to another one on the incomplete row in front of Elsa. She turned around to look at the console which told her that the retrieval was still in progress. She now noticed her heart beating faster, though she did not know whether it was because of the tension or the increasing lack of oxygen. The crane returned with another crate which he didn't place on top of the other one, but next to it on the floor. The crane went back to the top and stopped there. A quick glance at the console told Elsa that this had to be the crate she had been looking for.

Eagerly she stepped towards it and slowly lifted its top. On the left were eight cylinders of approximately twenty centimeters in diameter and to the right were a few smaller boxes. Elsa picked up one of the cylinders. It was surprisingly heavy, around five kilogram. But she smiled as she read the compound's name on the cylinder's side. She had found it. She turned off the console, closed her laptop – she would retrieve it later – and put two of the cylinders into her backpack. She hadn't expected however that the ten kilogram she now had on her back would tax her as much as they did.

Panting even more heavily than before she walked out of the cargo hold and reached for her radio.

“Colonel Young, this is Elsa. I found it. I repeat, I found the-” Just then her legs gave in and she fell face forward to the floor. She had been able to break her fall a bit, but it wasn't enough.

“ _Elsa? Elsa, come in? Elsa?!”_ , was the last she heard out of the radio, before she succumbed to the darkness that clouded her eyes.

* * *

Slowly Elsa felt her senses return to her again. She could feel the hard floor she was lying on. For some reason it didn't feel as hard as she remembered _Destiny_ 's floors though. Also it smelled different, less like mechanical, recycled air, but more like fresh air, filled in with the smells of wood, stone and furniture. She also noticed the absence of the low humming noise that had been omnipresent on the ship. And now that she thought about it she also missed the feeling of her backpack against her back, pressing her to the floor.

She opened her eyes which widened right away as they didn't notice the dimly light corridors of the Ancient ship, but instead a sight that she hadn't seen in more than a century. It was a corridor in Arendelle's castle that she was lying in. And now she also understood why the floor didn't feel as hard. She had been lying on one of the carpets that were placed in various corridors.

Carefully she stood up. Why was she here? Was that a dream? She had dreamed of the castle before, but somehow this felt different, almost real.

While trying to remember where exactly she was right now in the castle she noticed the sound of muffled voices. They came from a door next to her. She recognized this door. It was the door of the great hall. Hesitantly she reached for the door handle, pressed it and slowly opened the door. As she looked into the hall nothing in the world could have prepared her for what or better whom she saw standing in the center of the large room and chatting with each other. There were Kai and Gerda, the two head servants of the castle. There was Ingunn, her niece. Next to her was Kristoff together with his trusty reindeer friend Sven. What surprised her the most however was the pair that she nearly hadn't recognized. It was her parents. Looking just like the day they had left for their fateful journey. Now that Elsa thought of it all of them looked rather young. Kristoff and Sven appeared to be around the age they had met Anna during the Eternal Winter. Ingunn however looked around 18 years old and Kai and Gerda were in their forties to early fifties as well.

“Elsa!”, her mother exclaimed happily and walked towards her, her father following closely behind. Whatever this was it felt too real. Tears started to build up in her eyes. Her parents stopped around one meter in front of her, looking unsure of how they should handle their daughter. But Elsa had enough of this. She wasn't the fearful little thing anymore from 150 years ago who had been fighting for control over her powers. No. Finally she was able to do what she should have done back then. She tackled her mother for a hug, fearing for a minute that she would simply pass through the figure in front of her like she had passed through Anna. But nothing of that sort occurred and she found herself hugging her very solid mother and her father soon joined in. Her tears were now running freely.

“Mama! Papa! I've missed you so much!” She felt like her eight years old self again, before the isolation from the world and her sister, and before she learned to fear her powers.

“Oh, my sweet, dear Elsa”, Idun said while gently stroking her daughters head. “How I have longed for the moment to have you in my arms again. We are so sorry that we didn't see that the answer was love.”

“We are so proud of you”, her father chimed in.

Elsa was totally at a loss of words. She didn't mind however. Right now she was very content in being in the middle of a hug with both her parents.

“I am sorry to interrupt this, but it isn't her time yet”, a new voice sounded from behind Elsa. A voice she knew very well, whose owner she had missed in this gathering. Slowly Elsa broke the hug with her parents and turned around. Sure enough her younger sister was standing there wearing the same outfit she had worn earlier in her quarters. “Um, hi, together!”, she said accompanied by an unsure wave.

“Anna!”, Elsa said what everyone in the room thought. Now Elsa was even more at a loss as to what this had been. If it had been a dream then why would Anna be in her Ancient influenced outfit and not in something more fitting for the castle? Then again Elsa still felt the jeans and the shirt she had been wearing all day which didn't fit in with the outfits of the others either.

Slowly Anna came forward. “It's good to see you all again.” Her gaze shifted from her parents, to her husband and his childhood friend, to her daughter and finally to the two servants that had been like grand parents for Elsa and Anna.

Elsa could see that Anna was restraining herself, holding herself back, but why? Her mother seemed to notice as well and simply decided to break whatever resolve her younger daughter had by hugging her. It seemed to work as soon enough Anna was crying just like Elsa had been moments ago. Like before Agdar joined in and just then Idun reached out and pulled Elsa into the hug as well.

They stood like this for several minutes rejoicing in the feelings they couldn't have for one and a half centuries. Finally however Anna broke the hug. “That felt good and all and I'd really like to stay and enjoy more.” She glanced at Kristoff at this. “But we can't stay.”

“What do you mean 'we can't stay'? What is this, Anna”, Elsa asked her younger sister.

“It's what lies beyond death.”

“You mean, I'm dead?”

“Not if I have a say in it. It's not your time yet, Elsa. And neither is it mine.” So this wasn't a dream at all. Elsa was dead, or if she believed her sister at least near dead. But why would her sister want her to live on? Weren't all these decades enough?

Suddenly an all too familiar sound could be heard behind her. It was a clicking noise and the grinding of stone upon stone. She knew what she would see once she turned around and wasn't disappointed for a Stargate had appeared in the middle of the great hall. It looked different however. It had the overall appearance of a Milky Way Stargate with its gray stonelike texture and its rotating inner ring, but it seemed a bit smaller like the gate on _Destiny_. The chevrons weren't orange, but had the blue hue of the Pegasus Stargates and the symbols weren't the usual constellations of the Milky Way gates either. They seemed to be the cryptic symbols of _Destiny_ 's Stargate with their hollow and filled dots, the dashes and the tildes. Elsa noticed how the gathered group of people moved to the side of the gate as if they knew that standing directly in front of the forming wormhole would be deadly. Though Elsa wondered how deadly something could be if one was already dead. They all watched in silence as the gate dialed a nine symbol address. Elsa couldn't see the two bottom chevrons of the gate as they were beneath the great hall's floor, but for two locks no other chevron had lit up. The final symbol came to line up with the chevron at the top.

“Chevron nine is locked”, Anna said with a grin. Once the chevron slid back into place the familiar clicking noise of an activating Stargate occurred and the unstable vortex leashed out along the gate's central axis. Mere moments later the wormhole had settled in the lightly waving puddle that illuminated the great hall further.

“Your style of travel is truly impressive”, remarked Agdar and smiled at his two daughters.

Anna walked over to Kai and Gerda and hugged them as well as her own daughter and Sven.

“I miss you feisty pants”, Kristoff joked and gently kissed her on the lips.

“I miss you, too, my reindeer king.” She wiped a tear away.

“Can't you stay any longer?”

“No, Kristoff, you know I can't.” Anna hugged her husband and then came back to where Elsa and their parents were waiting, her gaze on the floor. Elsa took this as a cue to do the same round of farewell, though without kissing Kristoff.

Now both her and Anna were standing in front of their parents again and the two sisters decided to hug them together. They didn't hug as long as previously and soon enough the two sisters broke away again.

“Will I ever see you again?”, Elsa asked before she turned towards the gate.

“You'll be fine, Elsa”, her father said with as much love in his eyes as he could possibly muster.

“We'll wait for all eternity if need be”, her mother said wiping away a tear from Elsa's cheek..

Elsa's body had already turned towards the gate, but her view still lingered on the people she had missed for so long. Then however she felt a hand reach for her and Elsa's eyes locked with those of Anna who had been standing next to her.

“Are you ready?”, the strawberry blonde asked.

“No, but I'm sure that I wont get any more ready”, the older sister replied with a nearly breaking voice. A look into Anna's eyes told her that her younger sister understood completely what Elsa was going through.

“Then let's go”, Anna finally said with a firm voice, though Elsa was sure that this was merely a facade. Once Anna took the first step towards the gate Elsa moved as well. They entered the event horizon together and Elsa's senses went numb again.

* * *

When her senses returned she felt that she was lying on a soft, comfortable mattress. She could feel a blanket above her body and the air she inhaled smelled recycled though not as stale as before. A low humming noise filled her ears. She was back on _Destiny_. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling above her. She heard a noise from outside her view and soon enough a female face with blonde hair entered it. It was TJ.

“Hey, Elsa. Good to have you with us again.”

Slowly Elsa sat upright and looked around. She had expected to be in the infirmary, but instead she was in her quarters. And a look outside the window told her that the ship was flying faster than light again.

“What happened?”, Elsa asked.

“When you didn't answer, Colonel Young sent a team to look for you. They found you unconscious near the cargo hold with a heavy bag on your back. They brought you to the infirmary, but you didn't seem to have any severe injuries. You likely collapsed out of a combination of exhaustion and lack of oxygen. The Colonel ordered to bring you here after we had resolved our breathing problems and since I don't know the devices inside the infirmary good enough I couldn't really object.”

“Did the compound I had found help?”

“Yes, it did. Though Lieutenant Scott also had brought back limestone from the planet just as the countdown had run out.”

“Palmer and Curtis?” Elsa noticed that TJ hesitated to answer this question. She bit her lower lip and looked around the room. Finally however she answered.

“They didn't answer when Eli dialed the planet they had gone to. Probably they were dead even before we jumped to FTL.” Elsa's eyes widened. If only she had found the compound earlier. This way they had lost three souls already during their first day on the Ancient ship.

“It's been a long day for all of us. Best you rest a bit more”, TJ finally said and Elsa merely nodded, lying down again. Without a further word the medic left the room and closed the quarter's doors again.

Elsa felt the exhaustion of the day overwhelm her. _Why didn't you let me die, Anna_ , were her last thoughts as she slowly drifted into a restless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... that was quite an eventful chapter, don't you think? :)  
> Lisa Park having an eye for Elsa (then again she went around with many people on the ship in the series ;) ), Telford having made advances to Elsa (poor Elsa...) and then there's not only an appearance of Kristoff, but of Idun and Agdar as well. 
> 
> Regarding the Norwegian curse word "Faen": it can roughly be translated as "Damn it!". And most likely you won't see Elsa curse that often, she's afterall rather polite and correct. But after a day like that plus less oxygen than preferred one might loose one's temper...
> 
> The next chapter will need around one to two weeks and will of course be Darkness. There I'll also reveal whether the ice gear Elsa had created will have any consequences for her cover. ;)
> 
> Update: A few small corrections.


	5. Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go again. Of course with the life support fixed Destiny's problems aren't going to end magically. ;)
> 
> I've also decided to reduce the rating to "Teen And Up Audiences" since I haven't planned anything mature worthy for now and at least in Germany this story would be somewhere between "12 and older" and "16 and older"...
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

There was snow flying past Elsa with the power of a rocket. Millions of tiny, sharp crystals that at these speeds could hurt just as badly as needles. The wind was swirling her braid, her bangs and her cape. Even though the cold had never bothered her she had difficulties moving forward on the frozen fjord below her. Nevertheless she did. Something was pushing her. Fear. Fear of what she had done, fear of what she had been able to do. She had cursed her kingdom, her home, but more importantly she had hurt her sister. Sweet, innocent Anna who had been nothing but kind to her for all those years. Anna had been right though. All Elsa did know was how to shut people out. She had shut the world out, her parents and Anna. Oh, if only she could die in this raging blizzard! But this was merely a wish that the cold, the snow wouldn't fulfill for her. Thus it was best to run away, to leave behind those she cared for. She didn't yet know where she would go, but she should stay away from civilization.

She noticed a figure emerging from the swirling white wall. She didn't recognize it yet, she didn't want to. So she simply turned around and tried to run away from it, but a voice cut her of.

“Elsa! You can't run from this!” Something wasn't right. This voice shouldn't be here. It should have been Hans that had said this, not... She turned around and her suspicions were confirmed. It indeed wasn't Hans, but Colonel Young that had yelled at her.

“Please, just take care of our crew”, she pleaded. This didn't make any sense, this wasn't how it had been. Colonel Young hadn't been born back then, there had been no crew, then why was he here, dressed in Hans' garb and why did she just say that?

“The crew? They are on the ship, weak and cold. They said that you froze their hearts!”

“No”, she whispered. It couldn't be. She hadn't frozen anyone. And they had solved the problem with the life support system.

“The crew is dead!”

“No!” She had failed. Again. First she couldn't protect her sister, now she couldn't protect these people. She collapsed onto the icy surface and began to sob. Remotely she heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed and then...

* * *

... the blonde bolted straight up. She was breathing heavily and snowflakes were gliding through the room. Anna noticed the sweat upon her sisters forehead. The younger one of the two sisters had materialized moments ago when she had become aware of her sister's distress.

“Elsa!” She moved right into her older sister's line of sight in the hope of catching her focus. “Elsa, look at me! It was just a dream! You're save, you're on _Destiny_. Everything is alright!” Her sister's eyes still hadn't focused on her. It was as if she was staring right through her. Oh how she wished to be able to physically interact with her sister, to yank her out of whatever nightmare she had gotten herself trapped in. “Elsa!”, she shouted. Finally the cerulean eyes locked onto Anna's eyes.

“Anna”, she breathed.

“Shhh, Elsa. It's okay. It was just a dream.” She noticed that her older sister's breathing slowly calmed down. Also she noticed the tears swelling up in her eyes.

“It's my fault they are dead.”

“Woah, woah, slow down, sis. Whose deaths should be your fault?”

“Senator Armstrong, Palmer, Curtis.”

“I fail to see how their deaths should have been your fault.”

“It's because I had been selfish. If I'd simply used my powers sooner I could have saved the Senator. And there would have been no need for Palmer and Curtis to go to another planet.”

Oh great, she was finding reasons again to blame herself. It seemed that 150 years didn't change that.

“Elsa, listen to me. None of these deaths were your fault.” Her sister wanted to interrupt, but Anna held up a finger and continued. “The Senator would have died anyway. He was bleeding internally, you had seen it yourself. You simply let him die with a purpose. And in the knowledge that his sacrifice gave his daughter a bit more time. The other two weren't your fault either. They had already left the planet when you had found out that you needed help with the crane.”

“But if I'd found it sooner, if I hadn't talked with Chloe and TJ...”

“No, Elsa. These talks were important for these two women. And you can't save everyone. You aren't their protector. You couldn't even do that when you were Queen. I couldn't do it either when I had been. There will always be deaths, but nearly always they won't be your fault.”

Elsa turned her gaze away from Anna and looked out of the window. Anna knew that the shock wave of the faster than light flight that traveled along the hull could have a calming effect on ones mind just as the aurora back on Earth had. She could see the faint reflection of the artificial aurora on her sister's eyes and behind that she could see her sister's mind deep in thought. If she wanted to she would have been able to poke right into her mind, to see what had been bothering her, but she didn't want to. It was one thing to influence people to ignore vacant quarters, but it was another thing to read them like an open book. Anna didn't want to read anyone like that, but most importantly she didn't want to read her sister. They had mutual trust in each other even after Anna's ascension and she most certainly didn't want to betray that.

“Why didn't you just let me die”, Elsa finally said with a longing voice.

“Wait, what? Why would you say that?”

“I was going to die, right Anna?” Elsa's eyes had found their way back to Anna's.

“I... uhm... you...” This time it was Anna that turned away. She hadn't expected her sister to ask her about this experience. Then again what had she expected anyway? That Elsa would be dancing through the ship happily flinging around snow flakes? To her shame Anna had to admit that even after all these years she still had this kind of naivety. She noticed that her sister was still waiting for an answer. Anna breathed once and turned back to those eyes that already knew what the answer would be. “Yes.”

“Then why did you pull me away from there?”

“Why would you want to die?”

“Why wouldn't I? Anna, look at me! I'm 180 years old. I'm older than any other human being on Earth, I've lived through terrible wars and through times that are merely a footnote in history books. Honestly I had enough of a fair share of life. I'm sick of it!” Anna was at a loss of words. During all this time she had never thought about how her sister would think about this whole matter of immortality, how it would have shaped her. “Doesn't it bother you, Anna? You should be even worse than me! You can't even physically interact with anyone! How, Anna?”

“I...” Had she never thought about this? True, there were times when she had been bored, when she bothered the other Ascended to entertain her somehow, when she annoyed them by riding an imagined bike through their imagined road side café, but she had never been bothered by this existence. It didn't make sense, at least not in retrospection. Maybe it was her endless optimism combined with her energetic self? “I don't know why it doesn't bother me, Elsa. I can't tell you much, but I can tell you this.” She gestured to everything that surrounded them. “This is your destiny.” She hesitated a bit, then added: “Lowercase. And mine as well. Ours together. And I want you, no I need you to pull through. For me.” She didn't have any precognitive powers, but she didn't need them anyway. She knew what would happen in the future. At least for the next year or so, for it had happened once already. And it would happen again. In addition to that this was why she had been assigned to keep an eye on Elsa. The other Ascended had the feeling that she would sooner or later stumble upon _Destiny_ and it had been Anna's task to ensure that her sister would see this day and that she'd fulfill the ship's mission, something the Ancients didn't have the possibility to anymore despite their powers.

“My destiny...”, Elsa whispered. “So there is a reason why I'm here?”

“I can't tell you more, you know that. I already went quite far by telling you this.” It was a pity that she couldn't tell Elsa the whole truth, to reveal all the knowledge she had gained upon her ascension, the wonders she had witnessed. But maybe there was something else she could do for her sister. It might not be much, but hopefully it would be enough. With as much willpower as she was able to gather she concentrated on her left hand which she placed on one of Elsa's and gently squeezed it. She saw Elsa's eyes widen as the blonde first looked at her hand and then into Anna's eyes.

“You can touch me?”

“Only with my hand and by concentrating more than I've ever done in all my life. And you know I'm not that good at that”, Anna responded, all the while trying to keep herself concentrated on the physical appearance of her hand. Then however she lost it and her hand slipped right through Elsa's. Immediately both retracted their hands.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry!”, Anna said. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.” A smile appeared on Elsa's face. “But thank you for the effort.”

“You're welcome. Don't expect me to do this anytime soon though. I feel my head spinning already from all that concentration.”

Elsa giggled, hiding her laughter behind the hand Anna had touched mere moments ago. Some habits really died hard.

“You gonna be okay for now?”

“I don't know. I need to think about it.”

“Then I'll leave you alone again.” Anna hadn't yet finished her sentence when Elsa reached out to her.

“No, please.” She retracted her hand and looked down towards the blanket. “Would you stay, please? At least until I'm sleeping again?”

“Oh, Elsa. Of course.” A smile tugged at the blonde's lips as she lay down on the bed, reorganizing her blanket a bit in the process. She was lying on her side, looking towards the room's wall with the two windows, the colorfully distorted blackness of space visible through them. She hoped her sister would find a peaceful sleep quickly, because the coming day would prove to be quite stressful again.

“Anna?”

“Yes, sis?”

“Did it hurt when you saw them again?” Elsa didn't need to explain who she had meant with 'them'. It was clear that she was talking about their family, all of them, they had met a few hours ago. Anna hadn't expected to see them there. Honestly she hadn't expected anything. That had been the first time she had followed anyone into the 'beyond'. She thought she would be able to handle the situation gracefully, but her mother had made sure to break through what little resolve Anna had managed to muster.

“Yeah, it hurt. But then again we now know that they will be there, should either of us ever move on.”

“Only together”, Elsa smiled and closed her eyes to find some sleep.

“Only together”, Anna repeated.

* * *

Elsa's second part of the night had been dreamless and she would have preferred if she could have continued with her sleep, but a knocking on the door made that impossible.

“Who's there?”, she asked, more asleep than awake, though she hoped that she had been loud enough to be heard through the massive metal door.

“It's Colonel Young, I'd like to talk to you”, a male voice responded.

Thunderstruck Elsa threw aside her blanket and got out of the bed only to notice that she was merely dressed in her undergarments. “Uhm, one moment, please, Colonel.” She looked around her room and noticed her jeans and her black shirt lying on the lounge on the other side of the room together with her shoes and socks. She quickly dressed and less then a minute later she stood next to the door control. She pressed the rusty looking knob and after the rotating noise of the gears the two door wings slid apart to reveal the form of Colonel Young standing behind them. His neutral, yet warm look immediately changed to a shocked one as he laid eyes on her.

“What? Do I have something in my face?”, she asked without thinking.

“Your hair”, the Colonel merely stated and Elsa eyes widened. _Of course!_ She had her hair open all day long and thus she would have a bed head that would have made her sister proud. No... not would have made. Made right now. She could really imagine Anna standing inside the room, invisible for both humans and laughing her ass off. “I'm sorry, Colonel, that you have to witness this.” Elsa pointed at her hair. “But I just got up.” She turned around and invited the soldier into her room. After he had entered she closed the door again. “Normally I sleep with a braid to avoid this chaos.”

“Of course.” He moved up his hand. “I believe this belongs to you?” Only now Elsa noticed the object he was holding in his hands. It was her backpack. She reached out and took it. It appeared to be empty.

“Thank you, Colonel”, she said and placed the bag next to her bed. Her laptop was probably still on the console of the cargo hold.

“No, thank you, Elsa. You brought the compound to us. You didn't need to do this.”

“I wanted us to survive.” She thought back at the discussion with Anna a few hours earlier. Did she really want to survive?

“Mr. Brody had told me that the crane was damaged too much to fix it during the time he had. So I take it you used your powers to overcome this problem?”

Elsa blushed. “Yes, Colonel. I created a cog wheel to replace the broken one and was then able to command the system to bring me the correct crate.” She hesitated a bit. “What did you tell him?”

“We didn't have the chance to talk, yet. So nothing. I would still prefer to keep the truth about you a secret for as long as possible.”

“I don't think this will work for long. I didn't pack my makeup and both TJ and Dr. Park noticed my young face after I had removed my ruined makeup.” Though both women seemed to have come to different conclusions upon this. “And Chloe might have noticed as well.”

“I understand. Nevertheless I'd like to keep Mr. Brody occupied enough so that he'd not think about the cargo hold for now.”

“We won't be able to get much out of there anyway as long as the elevator there isn't repaired.”

“I'll put it a bit further down on his list.”

“But, Colonel, there are things in there that we could use! A medical bed that could help TJ with her job and a repair robot that could help us with the ship's damages.”

“I won't put it too far down then.”

“Thank you.” Elsa wondered whether the Colonel would go now so that she could tame that mess on her head, but he didn't move. “Anything else, Colonel?”

“Yes. Camile Wray and me have decided to have meetings with the people on the ship in the mess hall.” They had a mess hall? Then again why wouldn't the ship have one? “Since you weren't available yesterday when we announced this I came here to inform you directly. I'd like to have you in the first group with Eli and Rush. We'll meet in about an hour.”

“Okay, Colonel, I'll be there.”

The Colonel went to leave. He pressed the door control button and after the door had opened he went through. Right in the door frame he stopped though and looked back at her.

“That are nice quarters you have picked.”

“Thank you”, Elsa smiled.

He nodded once and with that he was gone. Elsa walked towards the door control and shut the door again. “Yes, nice quarters indeed”, she mumbled and went to look for her hairbrush and this time a hair tie.

* * *

It didn't take Elsa long to fix her hair – after all she had more than one and a half centuries of experience – so she decided to pay the control interface room a visit before heading to the mess hall, which reminded her that she'd need to look up the location of the mess hall anyway. When she entered the room she already saw Rush standing at one of the consoles.

“Good morning, Dr. Rush.”

“Good morning.” Well, at least he didn't use her last name.

“Have you slept well?”, she asked while walking to one of the unoccupied consoles.

“I have not yet found the time for this. Too many problems ahead of us.”

“Oh, if you would enlighten me, please?”

“With our life support problem solved thanks to Lieutenant Scott and you...” He nodded towards her. Likely she wouldn't get much more gratitude out of him right now, so she took what she would get her hands on. “... we now have to face more dire power issues especially considering that the Stargate was used quite much yesterday.”

“Which is a huge power hog.”

“Exactly. I can't give any details yet, but it seems that our reserves get lower by the minute. Our presence is really taxing _Destiny_ 's reserves compared to its previously solemn travel.”

“Her.”

“What?”

“I'm sorry. It's just that ships usually are spoken about with female pronouns. And especially considering her age I'd say that she really deserves this honor.” The scientist seemed to contemplate her comment, but finally nodded.

“Her then.” He pressed a few buttons, then looked at her again. “You look surprisingly comfortable in our situation. Especially considering that everyone else is nuts about finding a way to go back to Earth again.” Elsa noticed that he hadn't said 'to go home again'.

“To be honest I indeed feel rather comfortable.” At least regarding the overall situation. Her death experience and the following talk with Anna were different topics however. “For some reason I feel rather save here. Nearly as much as back home on Earth, maybe even more despite that up until now we had nothing but problems.”

“You might as well be the only one who thinks like this.” He paused a bit. “Besides me of course.”

“So I take it that it would be best to have everyone not power any unnecessary systems, right?”

“Yes, that would be most advisable.”

With that Rush's attention went back to the console and Elsa decided to finally check for the mess hall's location. It didn't take her long to find it and after a quick look at her pocket watch she decided that she'd better go there.

“I'm off to the meeting with Colonel Young and Camile Wray. You coming?”, she asked before leaving the room.

“Go ahead. I have something to take care of before that.”

* * *

On her way to the mess hall Elsa was stopped by Sergeant Riley at one of the intersections.

“Good morning, Elsa. Do you have a moment?”

“Good morning, Sergeant Riley. What is it?”

“Look at this flashlight.” He held up a flashlight of which the light only shone faintly. “If I now place it here.” He walked over to a silvery plate in an alcove at one of the corridor's walls and placed the flashlight there. “And wait a few seconds.” He seemed to mentally count the time ticking by until he removed the flashlight again. “And voila!” After a press of the flashlight's button it shone as if it had received a fresh set of batteries.

“Oh, Riley, this is wonderful! How does it work?” Elsa immediately looked at the plate.

“We don't know exactly yet, but we managed to tweak it for Earth technology. For now you must not leave anything on the charging plate for too long otherwise the batteries will be fried.”

“This is amazing.” Then the discussion she just had with Rush came back to her consciousness again. “But you must turn it off.”

“B-but why? We have all these to charge!”, he gestured to a crate filled with flashlights and radios.

“Sergeant Riley.” Elsa put on her most queenly demeanor. “I understand that this is an important discovery, but we have only limited and nearly exhausted power reserves on the ship and until we find a way to solve this issue we better not waste any power that we might need otherwise, understood?” He hesitated, looking quite intimidated by her, but finally he nodded. She felt a bit guilty about it, so she put on a smile. “But once we have solved that I'll be the first to come running to you with my laptop.” Now he smiled as well, but nevertheless powered down the charging plate. “Good, now if you excuse me, I have a meeting to catch.”

* * *

When Elsa reached the mess hall a small group of people was already waiting outside of it. Among them were Lieutenant Scott, Chloe Armstrong, Eli Wallace and... oh... Adam Brody. Eli had noticed her first.

“Oh, good morning, Elsa!”

“Good morning, Eli... and everyone else of course.”

“You had us worried nearly as much as Scott here.”

“I'm sorry, Eli, but I'm a bit lost. I know that Lieutenant Scott had found the limestone, but I don't know anything more than that.”

“First he just split of Palmer, Curtis, Franklin and me, then he had Greer and Rush go back to the gate and continued alone on his quest for the limestone. Guess he didn't want to share all the experience points.” Eli winked and while everyone else seemed to moan Elsa couldn't help but giggle. She knew exactly what he was hinting at. Though he was likely referring to video games while she herself didn't think that he'd have as much experience with pen & paper role play games as she did. She really enjoyed getting into much more different roles than the ones she lived in each day and she even had managed to start her own little group on _Atlantis_. Maybe they could do this here on _Destiny_ as well? She'd just need to check who'd be into such games. Luckily she had a few rulebooks on her computer and thanks to the discovered charging plates she wouldn't need to fear the lifetime of the battery anymore once they've solved the power issues. “Meanwhile Greer had to shoot Franklin who was carried back to the ship by Rush. Green went looking for Scott and I waited at the gate. Shortly before the countdown ran out they appeared behind a dune and then Rush ordered me to stick my hand into the gate's event horizon. You can't imagine how scared I was to loose my hand.”

“The safety mechanism”, Elsa said with wide eyes.

“How do you know?” Eli looked at her suspiciously.

“Gate travel 101”, she responded with a shrug.

“Another video?”

“Yep.”

He groaned and then went on to finish his story. “Anyway. Greer and Scott stormed through the gate with the bag of limestone between them and then I went through. Shortly after we were through the ship jumped to FTL.”

“Well, that seemed to have been quite an adventure. A pity I missed it.”

“You seemed to haven't done that bad yourself though”, Chloe piped in. “You found the compound in the cargo hold.”

“Yeah, I still wonder how you did that after I left you there”, Brody said.

Now she needed to improvise. “I got lucky. I climbed on a few of the crates and looked into the top ones. One of them had the material.” The engineer looked at her with more serious suspicion than Eli had mere moments ago. “What?! I'm not that unathletic!”

“Everyone, please come in”, a new voice came from the direction of the mess hall. It was Colonel Young. Brody's gaze lingered at her for a bit longer then he turned and entered the room. As Elsa passed the Colonel he nearly invisibly nodded. He seemed to have heard the discussion with Brody and at least approved of her lie.

“Everyone, have a bowl of protein powder for breakfast”, the Colonel said and one of the soldiers, Becker according to the name tag on his uniform, went to work. He filled a beaker with a white powder to the brim. Everything above the rim of the beaker was shed off into the package again. He then grabbed a metallic bowl that had the same grey-brown look as everything else on the ship and poured the powder in it. With another beaker he tapped a specific amount of water from a water tap at a column in the center of the room and added the liquid to the bowls contents. He then whisked the mixture with an Ancient fork and handed the bowl together with an Ancient spoon to the first waiting person. This process continued for everyone that was present.

Once everyone was seated at one of the tables – or on one of the tables in case of Eli – the Colonel who was leaning at the edge of one of the tables began to fill in all of them.

“As all of you might be aware at least we won't suffocate to death for now. However we don't have many resources, so both food and water will be rationed for now. One of the search teams has found a water containment system that is connected at least to these taps right here, but likely also to others. Despite its age the water is well preserved, but it's not an endless resource.”

“Don't know whether the ship has electrolyzed it to produce oxygen, but you can see there's not much left in there”, Dr. Brody chimed in. “We did some calculations based on our estimates of the water depth and tank dimensions.”

“And the winner is...?”, the Colonel asked.

“Just over 90,000 liters.”

“91,046...ish”, Eli added.

“Go, Math Boy”, Scott joked and everyone else chuckled.

“Sounds like a lot”, Camile Wray said who was sitting at a table together with Elsa and another woman. She had a notepad in front of her, taking notes of the meeting.

“It wouldn't fill a backyard swimming pool”, Young explained.

“Still, it's enough to loosen rationing restrictions, isn't it?”

“Camile, I think I know where you're going with this, and believe me when I say that I – I too could use a shower.” Everyone laughed upon this. He was right though. With all the stress Elsa went through the previous day she would definitely greet a shower. Better even would be a bath, but she wouldn't be fussy about this. She briefly wondered whether she should check the map for a swimming pool when Eli spoke up.

“I don't think the showers use water.” Elsa – just as everyone else – turned to look at the young man. “They just spray a sort of mist, that you kinda stand in and it sorta beads up. There's one in a compartment off the crew quarters.”

“But were does this mist come from?”, Elsa asked. “There must be some resource that's providing it.”

“Oh, I looked. There are some tanks with two different chemicals in a room next to it that seem to do some kind of chemical reaction when brought together that produces the mist. According to the database it should last quite a while and in the cargo holds should be more of it.”

“How do you know all this if you haven't tried it?”, Lieutenant Scott asked.

“How do you know I haven't tried it?”, Eli shot back.

“Oh, we know.” Everyone laughed again. At least the mood was definitely better than yesterday. Then again they didn't have to face death this time, at least not in the next few hours.

“Thank you, Lieutenant Rosegarden”, Eli said insulted.

“No, he's right. You-you're worse than he is”, Chloe added while looking at Scott. And Eli thankfully gestured towards her.

“Wow, you can tell them apart”, Colonel Young said with feigned impression.

“We also identified a recycling system for liquid waste, so... once we get that system up and running we'll be able to stretch our water reserves even further”, Brody said.

“Good, this gets priority.”

Considering that Rush hadn't shown up yet Elsa thought it wise to mention their next potential problem. “Our power reserves also got heavily drained by the extended use of the gate yesterday. It would be best not to power up each and every system and to restrict searches of the ship.”

“I will arrange that. How long will we last?”

“We don't know. The ship's rather reluctant in handing out the information we need. It could be days or mere hours.”

“This is not really reassuring, you know?”, Eli asked.

“I'm sorry that I don't have better news. Maybe I can poke the system a bit more.”

Just then Dr. Rush entered the room and placed himself on the far end of the table Elsa and Wray were sitting at.

“Okay, folks. Let's have a better day than yesterday. Thank you.” The Colonel had placed his bowl down on the table he had been standing at while everyone except for Rush, the Colonel, Wray, Becker and Elsa filed out of the room, talking among each other. Elsa had decided to stay in case she would be needed during the talk with the head scientist.

“Your rations, sir”, Becker said as he placed a bowl in front of Rush.

“Thank you”, he said neutrally and started to eat. Meanwhile Young sat down on the opposite side of the table.

“I ordered you here twenty minutes ago.”

“I've been working. Throughout the night, actually. Trying to find out why our power reserves are so low. I'm quite concerned and so should you be.”

“I know. Elsa already provided some insight and I've agreed to restrict the searching of the ship and usage of unneeded systems.”

“You look exhausted. Maybe you should take a break”, Camile Wray said, looking worried.

Suddenly the lights in the room flickered for a moment and Rush dropped his bowl in exasperation.

“I don't think me taking a break will be what we need right now”, he spat. He then held up his bowl for Becker to see. “That was delicious. Thank you very much”, he said sarcastically to the soldier, placed the bowl back on the table and left the room.

“That man is a lot of work”, Colonel Young said and Elsa mentally agreed. However she decided to follow the scientist in the hope of finding out some more information about their current power situation. The last she heard of the Colonel was him asking Wray to bring in the next group.

* * *

About an hour later Elsa had been radioed by Scott however to help him to translate the controls of the shuttle. Brody's task had been to repair the recycling system – which she was glad of, because that meant that he wouldn't poke around in the cargo hold and possibly discover her ice cog wheel – and her Ancient was better anyway. Entering the shuttle which was docked somewhere a deck lower in front of the observation deck she saw Lieutenant Scott in the pilot seat and Lieutenant Johansen and Sergeant Greer leaning on walls or consoles all chatting with each other. Out of the three rectangular windows at the front she could see the bow shock of the FTL flight.

“Shouldn't you try to work out this shuttle instead of just chatting along?”, Elsa asked with a smile.

“It's hard when it already took me half an hour to find the on switch”, Lieutenant Scott said apologetically.

“I see, well then, young man, make way, please.”

“Wouldn't think that you're older than him the way you look”, Greer said. “I'd even say you look younger than on the base.”

Elsa waved it off. “Likely just the lighting conditions here.”

“Sure”, he said unconvinced, but didn't press the issue any further.

She sat down on the pilot chair that Scott had left already and started to look at the consoles. There was one integrated into the right armrest of the chair as well as two slim consoles that hung from the ceiling and appeared to be retractable.

“It might be best to glue the translations next to the controls. Do we have something for that?”, she asked.

“We have a some adhesive tape, a felt tip and scissors.” Lieutenant Scott pointed towards on of the benches in the back of the shuttle. “We thought that we'd need them. We also have a pencil and paper.”

Elsa thought for a moment. “Hand me the pencil and the paper, please. I'll put the translations on here and mark where each one goes on the consoles. Someone of you can then write the translations on the tape and put the snippets onto the consoles.”

“Sounds like a plan.” The Lieutenant shrugged then handed her the requested items.

“Thank you.” With that she went to work. Carefully she transcribed the Ancient letters onto the paper, one word below the other. In a second column she filled in the translations and somewhere to the side she added an image of the first console and marked each button location with a number. Once Elsa was finished with the first set of buttons she handed the paper to TJ who was already waiting for it with the felt tip in her right hand. Elsa meanwhile continued with the next set of buttons. Each time TJ cut off one of the translations either Greer or Scott would put them onto the correct place on the console based on Elsa's drawings. They continued like this for around the next half hour when suddenly Elsa noticed the scene outside the window change at the corner of her eyes. Instead of the bow shock she now saw a small, reddish star off towards the left and otherwise the blackness of space sprinkled with distant stars. They had dropped out of FTL. Out of reflex she looked back through the airlock into _Destiny_. The corridor was dark, unlike before when she had entered.

“I need to go to Rush”, she said and darted out of the room.

* * *

Elsa had reached the control interface room together with Colonel Young, supported by his crutch and Dale Volker who still had his right arm in a sling. Both had flashlights in their free hands. The apple core and the consoles were dark and only faint emergency lighting was giving them all a little bit of light for orientation.

“Did you do that, Rush?”, the Colonel asked as he walked towards the scientist.

“Is that what you think? No. No I didn't. But I have been standing here for the past few minutes watching systems fail all over the ship. And there's nothing I can do to stop that. The FTL drive was amongst the last to go.”

“We could be in range of a Stargate”, Volker threw in. Rush chuckled manically and nodded to the Colonel while pointing at the third man.

“You see what I mean?” Apparently there was something going on between the three that Elsa wasn't aware of. Likely Young had ordered Volker to work with Rush and that didn't work out. Yes, that sounded plausible and would definitely fit with her opinion about Rush. “No, there's no countdown.” He pointed towards the room's countdown clock which – upon being illuminated by one of the flashlights – was dark like all the other displays in the room.

“There's got to be emergency reserves”, the Colonel pondered.

“I don't think you seem to understand what's going on here, Colonel. Our reserves are _gone_. All of our power... is _gone_!”

“But maybe the Stargate has still some energy stored”, Volker suggested upon which Rush sighed.

“Come with me.”

They all left the control room, the corridors in front of them merely illuminated by the two flashlights the group had.

“So it wasn't anything you did?”, the Colonel asked upon which Elsa rolled her eyes. Shouldn't that be clear by now?

“Since I arrived, I have been unable to access any of the core systems: power, navigation or propulsion”, Rush explained.

“Why didn't you bring somebody else in on this?”

“Because I'm the only qualified person!”, Rush replied extremely irritated. “Aside from Elsa perhaps.” Well, at least she got some praise this time.

“You see, this is what _I'm_ talking about.”

“Maybe it's like a Lantian device. You need the Ancient gene to access...”, Volker suggested.

“ _Destiny_ predates that technology.”

“You know that for a fact?”, the Colonel asked.

“I've been positively tested for the Ancient gene before the Atlantis mission, Colonel and I didn't get any further than Dr. Rush”, Elsa supplied.

Nevertheless Rush got enraged. He stopped and turned around to look at Young. “Yes, Colonel! I know many things for a _fact_! I know you asked Gorman to poke around in the weapons systems, for a _fact_! I know you have ordered teams of people all over this ship to do things that they know nothing about! For a _fact_!”

“Right”, Colonel Young said calmly. “You think all those things add up to this, Rush?” The scientist continued to walk into the gate room they had managed to reach in the meantime. “Does that make sense to you?”

Rush walked to one of the consoles and pressed some of the buttons without any effect. “Look! Look!” Then he pointed at Young. “No, you're right. You are right. It was your reckless, pointless attempt to dial Earth that robbed me of the time I needed to solve this problem!”

“Well, maybe we're just missing something.”

“Yes, the opportunity of a lifetime!”, Rush yelled into the direction of the Stargate. “Because you wouldn't listen to me!” He continued to pace in the free space between the consoles and the gate all the while holding his head.

“TJ, this is Young.” The Colonel had picked his radio. “We could use a medic in the gate room.”

“I refuse to be held responsible for this situation!”

“Nobody's blaming you.”

“I ran out of time.” Elsa couldn't do anything but to watch the nervous breakdown of Dr. Rush.

“We can fix this!”

“Fix this?!”, Rush spat, his face red with anger. “What, you think just because you give the order it's possible?!” He stopped his pacing and stood right before the Colonel. “There is no more power! _Destiny_ saved every last ounce of its reserves for life support! And I've seen it happening! I've seen it being... sequestered away from me! I tried to... I tried to stop it. I tried to stop it, but I couldn't.”

“Rush...”

The scientist grabbed his head again. “In a few days time, this... this ship will go dark. It will go dark and-and cold...” Suddenly Rush collapsed unconsciously and Elsa immediately darted towards him.

“TJ, now!”, the Colonel said sternly into his radio.

“It seems his lack of sleep has gotten the better of him”, Elsa stated. “And maybe the coffee withdrawal as well.”

* * *

After Dr. Rush had been taken care of by TJ Colonel Young had ordered Elsa, Eli, Brody and Volker to meet at the Control Interface Room to confirm that the scientist's explanations were right. There wasn't much to check out however as both the apple core and the consoles were without power. Finally Volker stated the obvious.

“Rush was right. Everything but life support is dead.”

“Well, why now? Why just when we showed up?”, the Colonel asked the gathered geniuses.

“Because we just showed up”, Volker responded.

“Well, there's the Stargate. It's a power hog, and we had it on all day yesterday”, Brody added in.

“Not to mention the dial out attempt to Earth”, Elsa stated as a matter of fact.

“There's still some power, and the shields are still working to some degree, but...”, Volker continued.

“Again, that's to keep us alive”, Brody concluded.

“For how long?”

“We're going to have to wait for Rush to wake up for an answer to that one.”

“TJ says he's not going to be up for a while. So... where does that leave us?”

Volker and Brody exchanged looks.

“Dead”, both said shortly after each other.

Young turned around to look at Eli and Elsa.

“Not right away”, Eli supplied with a shrug.

“Yeah, we have days, maybe lots of days”, Elsa added.

“But if there's no Stargate in range...”, Volker began again.

“And there's not”, Eli threw in.

“We don't have the power to dial out anyway”, Elsa said.

“So it's a race between food, water and life support”, Volker summarized.

“I don't buy that.”

“We can't do anything without access to the ship's systems.” Volker punches a few of the dead controls. “Look. I mean, I could stand here all day.”

“Eli? Elsa?”

“I... put a Kino into search mode and sent it into unpressurized areas of the ship looking for an active console, somewhere. Nothing yet”, Eli told him.

“At least we still have the working shuttle. We can use it's sensors to see what's ahead of us. In theory we could also try to use it to power some of _Destiny_ 's systems – Eli is working at that already – but without the ship's schematics we have too many circuits to supply with energy that we might just drain the shuttle dry before one of these consoles even flickers”, Elsa reported.

“So, you're working on the problem.”

“Yeah”, both Eli and Elsa confirmed. The Colonel turned around to look at the two other men. They seemed irked that they haven't thought of this.

“Do the computer hacking drop-out and the linguistic computer hacker have to save our asses? Again?”

“The dropout is still here?”, Eli said insulted.

“Or are you going to get your heads out of yours?”

“The shuttle idea's pretty good”, Brody said.

“Yeah, there might be a workaround”, Volker added.

“Well, let's do that”, Colonel Young ordered with a firm voice. Both the engineer and the astrophysicist left the room upon this. The soldier turned to look at the remaining two. “Thank you, Eli, Elsa.” He turned to go, but Eli cut him off.

“By the way, it's... 'MIT dropout'.” Elsa face palmed.

“You wanna- you want a gold star for that?”, the Colonel asked.

“No, I just...”

“Do something. I'm gonna be gone for a few hours.”

“Gone?”

“To report this mess. If you need me, yank me back.” With that the Colonel had left the room as well.

“Really Eli? That's what's important right now?”, Elsa looked at the young man exasperated. “If I would speak up each time Rush discredited me I wouldn't get anything finished.”

“But I don't want people to think I'm useless only because I didn't finish university.”

Elsa sighed. “Yeah, I get that. But maybe you shouldn't demonstrate that much of an Ego. Let your actions speak for you instead.”

“Okay, I'm sorry, Mum.” Elsa giggled. Did he say that out of reflex or merely humor? She didn't know. Nevertheless she decided to tag along.

“Good, sweetheart”, she joked.

* * *

Elsa had gone back to the shuttle now that there wasn't anything that could be done in the Control Interface Room. Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer were still in the cockpit, TJ was back from treating Dr. Rush and Brody was already there as well. Apparently the notes she had produced earlier were already glued to the corresponding controls and so the four were studying the shuttle's systems.

“Do you guys come along with the translations I did?”, Elsa asked.

“Yeah, thanks for that”, Scott responded. “Look what we found.”

Elsa came closer and looked at the console Scott pointed to.

“Oh, a star system! That must be the star I saw when we dropped out of FTL.”

“Yeah, and it seems to have three potentially habitable planets. Currently we're drifting right towards the gas giant that is part of the outer system.”

Elsa looked closer at the data the console provided. “At least we won't crash into it. Might be either an insertion orbit or an aerobraking maneuver.”

“Then your first guesses are better than mine was.”

“He thought that we'd fly right into that thing”, Greer said while pointing at Scott.

“Well, I'm no astrophysicist and am not really firm in calculating orbits, but I can at least differentiate between crashing into a planet and flying around it”, Elsa stated humorously.

“I normally have computers for that”, Scott said ashamed.

“Scott? Johansen? A word, please?”, Colonel Young's voice said from the direction of the air lock. Both soldiers immediately went to them, but the remainder of the talk was held in a low voice so that it was lost to Elsa. Instead she placed herself on the pilot seat and studied the data the little ship had about the solar system.

After a few minutes however she and the other inhabitants of the room noticed the louder, angry voice of Colonel Young. “I gave you a direct order, Lieutenant!” Everyone turned around to listen to whatever was happening back there.

“Sir, I understand that you gave me a direct order, and I respectfully suggest that it would be a complete waste of time!”, Lieutenant Scott said upset and loud enough for everyone to hear. “I am telling you, the ship came here for a reason!”

Suddenly however the posture of the Colonel seemed to change out of nowhere. Had that been Telford again? After all Colonel Young had said that he'd report to Earth. Probably the connection had been severed just now.

The three officers were talking more silently again and just as Elsa wanted to turn back to the console Colonel Young moved forward. “So, the ship came here for what reason?”

“We have three potentially habitable planets in the inner star system ahead of us. And it seems that _Destiny_ exited FTL in such a way that she'll do an aerobraking maneuver to fly right into the inner part of the system”, Elsa reported. After studying the data more she was now sure that the ship wouldn't insert into a stable orbit around the gas giant, but would instead try to slow down by flying through the upper part of the planet's atmosphere.

“So the ship is giving us the chance to live on one of these planets?”

“Yes, that's the current theory, Colonel.” They hadn't all talked about this theory yet, but considering that Scott had said that he believed the ship came here for a reason she assumed that he had meant exactly this. And Elsa was relieved to see the young solider smiling.

* * *

They had spent around an hour in the shuttle. Brody had announced in between that the idea to channel the shuttle's power into the main ship would not work, at least not with the knowledge of the ship they currently had and then left the shuttle. TJ had gone off to look after Dr. Rush a while ago. Just then Elsa and the others noticed said scientist entering the shuttle together with the medic.

“Come on in”, Colonel Young greeted the reawakened man.

Rush went to look out one of the shuttle's windows. “Orbital insertion trajectory.”

“That was my first thought”, Scott said, smiling together with TJ and Colonel Young.

“No, I thought your first thought was we going to fly into the damn thing”, Greer snickered. He was however completely ignored by Scott.

“But no, sir. I'm guessing we'll get close enough to kiss, but not enough for capture.”

“An aerobraking maneuver”, Rush corrected himself.

“According to the shuttle's navigational systems, yes”, Elsa stated. “We can't determine the final course for sure yet, but it should slingshot us somewhere into the inner star system.”

“Where there are habitable planets.” Young's smile faltered at that and looked at TJ who merely shrugged innocently.

“I didn't tell him.”

“No, but you're all smiling.”

“Well, we're still too far out to know if they're anything more than rocks, but we found three candidates before Big Bertha here filled up the sky”, Colonel Young summarized. Elsa stifled a laughter upon the name for the gas giant the Colonel had come with. _Very fitting._

“So this trajectory is no accident then.”

“Oh, the man's quick. We'll know once we're clear.”

Elsa checked her pocket watch. “That will be in around six minutes.” She put the watch back into her pocket and got up from the pilot seat. “Here, have a seat.” The scientist placed himself in the offered seat and looked at the labeled controls.

“I take it you did these translations?”, he asked while giving her a short glance.

“Yes, I did.”

“Good work.” Elsa smiled.

“So we're clear, my definition of habitable includes a sandy beach, a tropical climate-”, Colonel Young began in good humor.

“There's going to be some severe turbulence when we contact the atmosphere”, Rush broke the fun.

“I'll pass the word”, the Colonel said, his smile faltered again. Just as the soldier wanted to leave Rush interrupted him.

“Colonel, about our previous conversation...”

“Rush, no need to apologize.”

“I wasn't about to. I'm trying to explain I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms.” Elsa mentally sighed. There really wasn't any hope for that man.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I know all about it.” With this the Colonel left together with Sergeant Greer as an escort.

Shortly after the two had left the radios in the room came to life. _“This is Young. We are expecting some atmospheric turbulence in a few minutes. Find a secure place, and plunk your asses down.”_

Elsa sat herself in front one of the consoles to the side and enjoyed the sight in front of the ship. The gas giant filled out nearly the complete visible space of the windows. It was a deep blue, like the sea and she could clearly see the cloud bands with some enormous storms right there. All in all it was a beautiful sight and not like anything she had ever seen before. Sure, she had been on space ships before, but they didn't have to fly close to gas giants back then. Much less even they flew through the upper atmosphere of such a planet.

“Ninety seconds to contact”, Scott said into his radio after a while. In addition to the artificial light of the cockpit's lamps the room was filled with the blue hue of the planet.

Then the ship began to vibrate. “Thirty seconds to contact. Hang on.” TJ found herself a place to sit and all four strapped themselves in using the seat-belts. _At least the constructors of the shuttle had more thought than the constructors of fictional ships like the Enterprise_ , Elsa thought with a smile. They were now plowing through the atmosphere, shoving aside blue clouds of gas. The vibrations continued for around a minute and then _Destiny_ 's course lead the ship to leave the gas giant's atmosphere again. The vibrations lessened and soon after vanished completely.

Scott breathed out heavily. “Whoo! Hell of a ride, huh?” Both TJ and Elsa laughed upon this.

“Yes. Yes it was”, Rush stated with a small smile. “Now. Let's find these planets you were talking about.”

Elsa looked at the console in front of her. “They are right ahead of us.”

“Yes, we should be able to analyze the atmosphere of the nearest planet within a few hours”, Rush said upon this.

“Are we clear?”, asked Colonel Young who had entered the shuttle again.

“Yes, sir. Did you catch any of that?”, Scott asked elated.

“No, I couldn't get back in time.”

Just then Elsa noticed something on her console and turned towards Rush. “Dr. Rush, do you see that?” He turned to look at her and then back at his own console. His eyes went wide and she knew that he saw the same that she had.

“This is unbelievable.” He tried to get the attention of the others. “Please everyone...”

“You sure missed a great show, sir”, Scott said to the Colonel.

“Please, everyone be quiet!”, Rush said louder and now had the attention of the three officers in the cockpit. “Our trajectory has changed.”

“Changed?”, TJ asked. Lieutenant Scott meanwhile walked up to Rush and looked at the pilot's console.

“The planet has altered _Destiny_ 's course more than we hoped.”

“What are you talking about, Rush?”, the Colonel asked while the Lieutenant starred at the screen in stunned horror. “Lieutenant, what the hell's he talking about?”

Elsa looked out of the front window. Dead ahead of them was the system's star. And they were flying right towards it with no way to change the ship's course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I now introduced a second point of view: Anna. I hope you don't mind, but I thought it would be nice and useful to see her side as well. :)
> 
> Oh and look at that, a star right in front of Destiny. Of course viewers of SGU will know what's up. For the others: look forward to the next chapter, Light, which will again take one to two weeks again.
> 
> Update: corrected Elsa's age and wrote Atlantis in italics.


	6. Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it took me a while, but here we go with the next chapter. :)
> 
> First a few retcons though:  
> \- I've reread on Norwegian surnames and 'dottar' is not a valid suffix, but 'datter' and 'dotter' are, so I'm going with 'Agdarsdatter' from now on  
> \- I also recalculated Elsa's age a bit and it makes more sense for her to be roughly 180 instead of 170; more details will likely come in Water ;)  
> \- I noticed that I misspelled Wray's first name as 'Camille' instead of 'Camile', so assume that corrected as well  
> \- for yet to be revealed reasons Elsa's alternate persona in the prologue will not be from Corona, but Prussia (in this AU Corona is not part of the universe)  
> \- (Frozen Fever spoiler: assume that the snowgies are at the ice palace as well :P )  
> I'll correct the previous chapters as soon as I find the time.
> 
> And now the long awaited fifth episode of SGU. :D
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

After Elsa and Dr. Rush had explained their new situation to Colonel Young, he had ordered everyone to meet in the gate room. Of course this was easier said than done considering that they had a shortage of radios, or at least a shortage of working ones. The room was dark, similar to the moment they all had arrived on _Destiny_ after the Stargate had shut down. A few people were standing on the balustrade of the second floor and shone their flashlights onto the people below. The small lights illuminated the large room enough to make out the faces of the gathered crowd. Nearly everyone was chatting with others nearby. There were a few exceptions though. Rush for example was leaning onto the side of the Stargate and observed the people. Elsa stood a bit in front of the Ancient ring, her hands in her pockets, her reading glasses hanging at the collar of her shirt with one of their frames. Like Rush she was observing the people. They all were facing certain death – again – and she wanted to learn how the others were going to handle this. The previous day she had been too busy to find a solution to do this, but this time there would be no solution. Even her powers wouldn't save her now and her immortality even less so.

Elsa heard the clicking of the Colonel's crutch before she saw him. He entered the room through the door on the second floor at the opposite side of the gate. Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer were standing there as well, weapons strapped onto their tactical vests. She concentrated on the Colonel and tuned out all other conversations going on in the room.

“Everyone here?”, the man asked Lieutenant Scott.

“All here, sir.”

Slowly the Colonel started to move down one of the staircases.

“If I could have your attention?”, he said loud enough for everyone to hear and soon enough all of those discussions that Elsa had pushed to the brim of her consciousness died down for real. “You've all heard of our situation.” He stopped in the middle of the staircase and leaned onto the outer handrail, leaning the crutch onto his right leg. “It sucks.” If their situation wouldn't have been as dire as it was Elsa would have laughed at the summary, but as it was she merely listened on. “I'm going to repeat the facts, so that we are all clear. In just over a day this ship will fly into a star. Now, we have no power to change its course. We have no idea how to steer the ship. Even if we did, we are having another bad day. So here's what we're gonna do. We have a working shuttle. We think there are three planets out there that might be habitable. Now we think... we believe that it's no coincidence that _Destiny_ dropped out of FTL in this solar system – to give us a chance.” He paused a bit. “Now, once we know for sure that there is a planet out there for us, we are going to have a lottery.”

Elsa looked surprised and the crowd agreed with her as various people asked: “What?”

“We will draw the name of fifteen people...”

“Fifteen?”, some people asked.

“The shuttle can hold twice as many”, Brody said.

“Not once it's loaded up with supplies”, Lieutenant Scott provided. “Besides, there's only life support for seventeen, max.”

“You said fifteen”, Camile Wray confronted the Colonel.

“I will be choosing two of the people myself. Two people with the necessary skills to fly the shuttle and survive on the planet.”

“Yeah, I bet I can guess who they are”, one of the soldiers, Spencer again, threw in. The crowd however seemed to agree with him. Colonel Young meanwhile had grabbed his crutch again and started to further move down the staircase.

“I'll be taking my name out of the lottery.” He had now arrived on the floor and walked along the crowd that had concentrated in the center of the room. “Anyone who wants to join me... keep talking.” The crowd fell silent on that, apparently no one dared to risk his chance to get away from certain death. “We're still several hours away from knowing if the first two are even habitable, so I suggest you all go back to your quarters and wait it out. That's all I have for now.” The Colonel turned around and walked out of the corridor while the crowd slowly dispersed, the people chatting with each other.

Were fifteen people even able to start a colony? Especially if they were chosen at random? It had been a brave move by the Colonel however to take himself out of the lottery. He had made sure that no one would think that he'd give himself an advantage only because he had been the military leader of the crew.

Elsa thought back to her near-death experience and her subsequent talk with Anna. Had her sister saved her just so that Elsa would die a day later in a red dwarf star? Hadn't she said that she'd need to live on because of a destiny? It just didn't make any sense. Maybe... maybe it would be best to end it right here. As soon as her resolve had formed she went into the direction the Colonel had gone.

She didn't know exactly where he had set up his quarters – she didn't have the time to study the crew quarters overlay before the power had gone out – so she looked into each of the rooms that she crossed. Mostly they were quarters of other members of the crew, sometimes they were empty or they were supply rooms. Then she saw Camile Wray walking towards her, eyes on the ground. Maybe she would know?

“Ms. Wray?”, Elsa asked calmly and the Asian woman looked up surprised.

“Ms. Agdarsdottar?”, Wray asked in a cold way which nearly seemed to question Elsa's existence on this ship. She didn't know what she had done to deserve this. Maybe though the woman had read her file back on Icarus base and stumbled upon a few holes in her cover story. The people of Homeworld Command were good, but she knew that they weren't perfect. And maybe someone from _Atlantis_ had talked with the IOA or with Wray directly. But she wouldn't deal with this now. It didn't matter anyway.

“Do-do you by any chance know where Colonel Young's quarters are?” The woman looked her up and down, trying to decipher why she might want to see the Colonel.

“If you want to talk to him you won't find him in his quarters”, she finally said and pointed towards the direction she had come from. “He has an 'office' a bit further down.”

“Thank you”, Elsa said as polite as possible and continued into the direction the other woman had indicated. As Elsa passed her she noticed the gaze of the other woman following her, but Elsa ignored it. She had years of experience in ignoring what other people thought of her. She had learned this already when she had been a Queen. While most of her subjects had liked her there were the officials of other countries that had been problematic. And then there had been the suitors. How glad she had been that Anna had found someone whom she truly loved and who loved her back just as much. Elsa hadn't had that luck. The council wanted to see her produce an heir, but Elsa didn't want to risk her powers being passed on to her children. And of course Elsa wasn't that attracted to men anyway.

It didn't take her long to reach a sole occupied room with a large, simple desk. Colonel Young sat behind it and wrote something on a stack of paper. Elsa didn't hesitate for long and knocked at the frame of the open bulkhead door, briefly wondering whether the door at her quarters would be open as well without any power. The soldier looked up and noticed her presence with a surprised look.

“Elsa? How can I help you? I hope you aren't here to suggest me how to handle this as well.” So that's what Wray had been doing here. “Though I'd likely take your input more seriously than anyone else's aboard.”

“In a certain way that's why I'm here.” The Colonel looked at her expectantly. She took a deep breath and decided to voice out her decision. “I-I want you to take my name out of the lottery.” There, she had said it. The man's eyes meanwhile widened in surprise. It seemed that he truly hadn't expected that, nobody probably would have. Likely the only other one who would do this would be Dr. Rush.

“You want me to do what? Why would you want to do that? They could need your expertise on the planet and I briefly even considered to select you myself.” Now it was Elsa's turn to be surprised. He would have selected her to go to the planet? She shook her head.

“I'm glad that you haven't gone through with that. My expertise and experience might be valuable there, but to survive as a colony it would also be important for me to have children. I'm not sure I can do that. And despite all this I don't know whether I really want to go on.” She paused for a moment and looked through the room which was flooded by the red light of the star that was dead ahead. “I'm 180 years old, I surely had my share of live. I've seen the wonders of Earth, _Atlantis_ and now the far reaches of the universe. I don't think there is anything more I can gain. So please, Colonel, take my name out of the lottery or I will fight should I be selected and you _know_ that I will win.” It wasn't in her nature to fight. She preferred to use her mind instead of relying on her powers, but if it would be necessary she could be a formidable fighter. She stared down at the man who was physically so much younger than her, but looked as if he could be her father. Again she had decided to use her most queenly demeanor like she had done with Sergeant Riley in the morning. But Colonel Young wasn't a mere Sergeant. One doesn't reach the rank of Colonel for nothing and it surely showed in his eyes as he pondered on what she had said to him. The silence stretched on, but finally he relented.

“Okay, you get your wish.” He searched through the stack of paper in front of him until he had reached the paper he had been looking for and pulled it out. “You're sure of this?”

“Yes, I am.” He put the paper as far away from the stack as the desk allowed. Despite them facing certain death in less than a day he probably still thought about saving their resources and throwing away a piece of paper with merely a name on it just wouldn't do. “Thank you.” She just wanted to turn around and leave the Colonel's office, but he stopped her by speaking up.

“I'd like you to keep this a secret though and to be there when I draw the names.” It didn't take her much thought though to realize why he did want that.

“You don't want to provide the crew with a reason why I'd not try to survive.”

“Yes”, he said with a nod.

“I'll be there.” And with that she left the room and strolled back towards the gate room thinking about what she'd do with the remaining time she had. Shortly before she had reached that room though she had an idea. There was still her laptop in the cargo hold and maybe she would be able to keep her mind off the immediate future by adjusting her software tools to the ancient Ancient software of the ship – at least as much as possible with the information she had available on her computer and her battery had enough power. Of course this wouldn't be of any use for anyone in a few hours, but it was better than just sitting in her quarters and doing nothing. _Better to die with an empty battery_ , she thought with a smirk and went for her quarters to fetch a flashlight she usually kept in her bag.

* * *

To Elsa's delight she had found her quarter's doors wide open so she didn't need to somehow fiddle around with a powerless bulkhead door. The flashlight she was looking for had been located inside the front pocket of her rucksack. It was a small device with light emitting diodes, a solar cell and a little crank all in a neat little ice blue casing. Both the solar cell and the crank allowed for the flashlight to be used without a limited power supply thus making it perfect for emergency situations. On her way to the ladder down towards the cargo hold she charged the lamp's capacitor using the crank. Slowly she descended the Ancient steps until she had reached the floor of the cargo hold. Carefully she slid from the ladder to the floor. It was strange. She had been on the ship for a few days and already she missed the otherwise omnipresent hum of the ship. It's absence made it so much more real that the ship was essentially dead. Elsa pulled the flashlight out of one of her trouser's pockets where she had stored it during her descent and switched it on. The light cone illuminated quite a bit of the dark corridor though it didn't have a wide angle. Unlike the previous time she had been here she didn't need to pause.

She had just started to move away from the ladder when a figure entered the light cone. At first Elsa felt panic rise in her until she noticed the white clothing the figure wore and the more it moved into the light the more Elsa relaxed again as she noticed that it was merely her ascended sister who was paying her a visit.

“Anna! You startled me!”, Elsa said accusingly.

“I'm sorry. I didn't know of a better way to approach you in this situation”, her younger sister replied with a smile.

“So you want to tag along while I fetch my laptop?” Elsa continued to walk towards the cargo hold and once she passed Anna her sister started to walk next to her.

“I mainly wanted to talk to you about your decision to stay on the ship.”

“So? What about it?” Elsa looked towards her sister who was suddenly looking rather uneasy.

“I-I think you are choosing the simple way out again. You're running away, just like you did after your coronation.” Elsa stopped and turned towards Anna. She knew exactly what her younger sister had meant, she still remembered these days and especially the events that led to them as if it had happened yesterday. She would never forget these feelings of unexpected exposure, of fear that had cursed through her like her powers did. True, it had all turned out well in the end, but not after she had hurt her sister again. The precise event that she hadn't wanted to repeat and yet it had. She still hadn't fully forgiven herself for letting herself go like that.

“Why are you saying that? These two situations aren't comparable”, Elsa said after she had collected herself a bit again.

“You can help the others survive, you can provide them with water and shelter and remove too much cold or heat from a small area. You can make the difference in them dying and surviving.”

“And what would that solve? We would be seventeen randomly selected people on some rock on the far side of the universe. Everyone would need to participate in reproduction and I don't know whether I can or even want to have children – at least not if it involves sex with a man. In addition I already told you that I don't necessarily mind to see this life end.” Just as Elsa noticed that Anna wanted to open her mouth to counter with something, another thought occurred to her. “Besides weren't you the one who said that _this_ ship is my destiny?” For a short time her sister's mouth was left open, but finally she closed it and looked away from Elsa, defeated.

“Touché.”

Still, something seemed off. In how far could this ship be her destiny if it would be destroyed in a few hours and she would be dead? She was missing something, she was sure, but she didn't know yet what it was. She just hoped she would see it when the time came.

Slowly Elsa continued towards the cargo hold, glancing back at her sister to make sure that she'd go with her which she did after a moment of hesitation. However the good mood they had before their discussion was gone.

So the two women entered the dark cargo hold in silence. Elsa went straight to the console where she had left her computer. She picked up the slim machine and turned it around to press the button on the battery to check its charge. Over the years she had learned to correctly interpret the five little diodes and with only two of them shining she knew that she'd only have roughly half an hour to one hour left. It wasn't much for sure, but it would at least be a bit of distraction. She held the computer in one arm and the flashlight in her other hand and turned around. Only now did she consciously notice the still open crate from a day ago.

“I can't help but wonder what kind of magnificent things the Ancients had stored in these cargo holds.”

“You talked to me?”, Anna said with surprise in her voice. “I thought you had gone all icy again.”

“Oh, Anna, I'm not angry at you or so. It's just... I don't know.” She sighed. “Back when you were still with us I thought I could handle this whole immortality thing, knowing full well that you wouldn't be with me forever. And now look at me: I've not only survived my whole family, but I also survived two world wars, lived in a different galaxy for five years and now I have been thrown a good part across the observable universe. Don't you think I have deserved my happy ending by now? And if my happy ending happens to be that red dwarf in front of _Destiny_ , then so be it! What better way to end the ice queen than the absolute opposite.”

“Elsa...”, Anna said with a soft voice. “I wish I could tell you more, but I can't and you know that. If only you knew what I do you'd understand.” The two sisters stood next to each other for a while both looking into different parts of the darkness inside the cargo hold that wasn't illuminated with Elsa's flashlight. Then Anna turned towards Elsa and smiled. “I'm absolutely sure though that you would have loved the contents of these crates. Or at least most of them.” What a way to chance a topic. Nevertheless Elsa couldn't help but smile at her sister's boundless optimism and her ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel – and keeping the ship's current situation in mind she didn't even consider that as a pun.

“I'll head back now. You coming?”

“Of course. After all I'll always be with you.”

Again in silence, but this time not a depressive one they went back to the ladder where Elsa noticed a problem. She hadn't brought her bag with her and she wouldn't want to climb the ladder while holding her computer in one hand. Gladly however she remembered that she wasn't helpless and used her powers to create a small bag just large enough for her her laptop and that she could strap. She was really thankful that she had discovered how she could make clothes and other such objects without a base object like she had needed when she made her ice dress. Her coronation dress had been transformed in the process, but after learning quite a bit about material properties, physics, chemistry and such throughout the decades Elsa was now able to create complex, flexible objects literally out of thin air. She placed the laptop inside the bag and wanted to climb back up when she remembered her sister who had been standing next to her, smiling.

“You likely won't be around upstairs, will you?”

“The others won't see me as long as I don't want them to see me. So don't be surprised if you should see me around.” Anna winked.

“Okay... then see you around, Anna.”

“See you, sis.” With that Anna vanished into thin air though Elsa was quite sure her younger sibling still kept an eye on her. After glancing one last time into the dark corridor she climbed back up.

* * *

Elsa was just passing through a large round room with benches when the appearance of Eli out of a side corridor surprised her.

“Eli! What a surprise to see you!” Luckily she had dissolved the bag once she had left the ladder and held her laptop in her hands.

“It shouldn't be. I sleep here.” He pointed towards the side corridor where she could make out a bench with a blanket and a cushion.

“Doesn't look that comfortable though.” She definitely was thankful for the rather soft bed she had in her quarters.

“It's good enough. Additionally I can play around with the Kinos.” Now Elsa's curiosity spiked.

“Why's that?”

“It's the Kino room.” He walked into his little area and gestured to a contraption at the other side of the room. “This is the Kino dispenser and this console is for viewing and editing video feeds of the Kinos.” He had showed her a console that had been just as dead as the remainder of the ship.

“Well, I can definitely see why _you_ would decide to sleep here”, she chuckled.

“Hey, uhm... I have an idea what we could do with the remainder of our time and I'd like you to join me in that project.” Elsa looked at Eli skeptically. “Not that kind of project!”, he corrected himself with a blush.

“So, what then?”

“I'd like to record messages of all of us that we leave behind once the shuttle departs.”

“Like a message in a bottle!”, Elsa exclaimed. “But you know that the changes that it will be found are very slim and much less for the finder to understand the technology?”

“Yeah, but I want to do _something_ , we should all do _something_ instead of just waiting for death to come.”

Elsa pondered about this for a while, but she couldn't find a real downside with this project. And Eli was right with one point: it would allow the crew to do something, anything. “Okay, what do you want me to do?”

“Can you pass around what I'm planning so that the people will gather in let's say that one empty storage room near the mess hall maybe in half an hour?”

“Yes, I can do that”, Elsa replied with a smile and left the Kino room.

* * *

Around half an hour later quite a part of the crew had gathered in the storage room Eli had mentioned. Elsa had placed her laptop back in her quarters after her talk with Eli and on her way there she had already encouraged everyone she saw in their rooms to come and join them. After she had stowed away her computer she had continued to do this in other quarters she found on her rather random path through the ship's inhabited areas. The people in the room were talking among themselves until Eli finally arrived with a Kino and a remote in his hand. The crowd immediately focused on him knowing from Elsa's invitation that he had been the initiator of the project.

“So... um... hi together. I don't know what you heard till now about this little idea of mine, so I'll explain it again... um...” The young man cleared his throat. “I'd like everyone of us to record a little message on this Kino which we'll leave behind as a kind of message in a bottle. Basically a memorial of all of us. I know that the chance that anyone finds it is basically non existing, but it's better than just sitting around and thinking about what lies directly ahead of us.” Murmuring started among the gathered crowd again, at least until Sergeant Greer spoke up.

“So how are you going to get the thing off the ship?”

“With the remote, when the shuttle takes off. We might even get one last look at the _Destiny_ from the outside before it gets out of range. So -” Eli stopped and turned when he noticed that Lieutenant Scott and Chloe entered the storage room. He looked down as if he was avoiding the other two. “What are you guys doing here?”, he asked primly looking at them again.

“We heard about your message in a bottle”, Chloe responded.

“It started out as a documentary, actually.”

“Well, um... we want to be part of it.”

“Figured you'd be busy”, Eli said with sarcasm and Elsa wondered what was going on here. Though considering that Scott and Chloe had arrived together and that their appearance completely changed Eli's behavior she could take an estimated guess as to what had happened: Eli had set his eyes on Chloe, but she had decided to go with Scott.

“Eli, you realize the odds of anybody finding a Kino out there -”, Scott began, but was sharply interrupted by the other young man.

“Probably nil. I know. Let's do it anyway.” He turned towards the others of the crowd. “Let's _do_ something. Let's leave something of ourselves behind.” Elsa noticed that Greer sighed heavily. “So, who's first?”

“I'll go first”, Elsa said and held up her hand.

“Okay, then let's go somewhere quiet. The others meanwhile think about who's next.”  

* * *

The two of them had gone to a vacant room next to the storage room. Elsa had handed Eli her flashlight so that he could light her more or less evenly and had placed the Kino to float in front of her.

“What would you like me to say?”, Elsa asked.

“I don't know. What about name, age, profession and maybe a few personal words?”

“Sounds fair.”

“Ready whenever you are, Elsa”, he said and pressed a button on the remote to start the recording.

“Okay... so... hi together.” Elsa waved towards the lens of the floating ball. “My name is Elsa Agdarsdatter. My age is not important.” She wasn't shy of her age, neither her real one nor her fake one, but she didn't want to leave behind a lie. So she preferred to simply not state her age at all. “I'm the lead programmer and linguist of the Icarus project. Um...” She hesitated a bit while thinking what kind of personal message she'd like to leave behind. She couldn't talk about Anna, officially she was dead for 150 years and no one besides herself knew about Anna ascension. Neither could she talk about her snowmen that were living in her ice palace. So she decided to settle on something that tied into their current situation. “Although it's kind of bad that we're stuck on this ship billions of light years away from Earth I can't help to feel amazed that I had been able to witness this marvelous ship. I only wished I would have had more time with her.” She looked around longingly. “Yeah, that's it...” Eli reached for his remote to switch off the recording again.

“Not bad for a first time. Why do you think though that your age isn't important?”

“I can be as old as I feel, Eli and I definitely don't feel as old as my age.” It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. After all she felt the figurative weight of 180 years upon her shoulders.

“And you really like it here? I thought only Rush did.”

“Well, I still think it was completely unfair and uncalled for of him to strand us here. Nevertheless this ship is simply awesome and I bet you agree with me on that.”

The young man pondered on what she had said and finally nodded. “Yes, I guess you're right. It sucks though that we're going to die.”

“You still have the chance to be drawn during the lottery.”

He laughed. “Even if I should be drawn what kind of life will that be? Maybe down the line I'll wish to have stayed on the ship and went down with it.” Elsa eyes widened a bit in surprise as she noticed the parallels between him and her. That were basically her thoughts although she had probably a different argumentation than him.

“Yeah, that are my thoughts as well”, she said and put a reassuring hand on Eli's shoulder.

* * *

Elsa didn't hang around any further once she was done with the recording of her message and instead proceeded to her quarters. There she pulled one of the chairs from the table to the desk in front of the window on which she had placed her computer earlier on. Unlike in Colonel Young's office – she mentally decided that she'd definitely call it that – the red dwarf star in front of them didn't illuminate her room as the windows were on the left side of the ship. The PowerBook luckily had an illuminated keyboard though she was able to write on it without looking at the keys. She powered on the device and logged in. Immediately she found herself at the same sight she had left the computer in more than a day ago. She quickly glanced at the battery indicator and noticed that her estimate from earlier was about right: she roughly had three quarters of an hour left. She decided not to waste it and went to work right away.

The blonde was glad that she had taken the time to copy the database file to her computer as otherwise this would have been quite a boring endeavor. Unlike then however she didn't open the database tool, but instead viewed the database file in a tool that directly allowed her to view the decles of the file. Unlike current computers of humanity in which the bits were arranged in groups of eight called a byte the Ancients arranged them in groups of ten. Since Elsa had lived through times when humanity still hadn't de facto standardized the arrangement of the bits she still knew from some people at IBM that they had called such an arrangement a decle. In extension this also meant that she didn't have to deal with numbers that were in base 16 but instead in base 32. But she had managed to get a firm grip on these during her years on _Atlantis_. Combined with her knowledge about the Ancient database format she quickly found the location of the entry names that her tool had missed earlier on. Though it didn't surprise her that it missed those considering that the Ancients seemed to have changed the format in which they had stored the names. Even with the Ancients not everything was set into stone. _Pun intended_ , she thought and went on to adjust her software which didn't take her long to do. She quickly tested her changes on the copied database file which now allowed her to completely and more importantly comfortably view the database's contents.

She would have liked to work on the protocol support to better interface with the Ancient computers on _Destiny_ , but without any power she couldn't do much here. Her drivers might have saved a few logs when they interfaced with the console, but that wouldn't be enough information right now. So instead of carrying on with her work Elsa decided to look through what interesting things the cargo hold would have provided to them in addition to what she had already found.

* * *

Half an hour later Elsa had to shut down her computer, because the battery was nearly exhausted. The next quarter of an hour she had spend looking at the stars through her windows. At least until one of the soldiers knocked on her room's door frame and announced that everyone should gather in the gate room.

It hadn't taken her long to reach the dark room. Nearly everyone seemed to have been there already, just a few still trickled in. Colonel Young was standing between the two staircases with Sergeant Greer on his side. On one of the staircases stood Lieutenant James. A third solider stood at the top of the staircases. The crowd itself was located in front of the Stargate so that they could all look at the Colonel. Elsa noticed that a black case with an open lid was standing in front of him. As soon as everyone seemed to be here the Colonel began and held up the case in such a way that everyone could see its contents.

“The names of every person in this room are written down on one of these pieces of paper.” Well, not everyone. But she wouldn't second guess her decision. It was too late now anyway. The Colonel placed the box down on another box in front of him. “Dr. Rush and I have chosen to exclude ourselves. If anyone else feels the same way, now would be the time to speak up.” For a moment the Colonel's eyes lingered on her then he let his gaze wander around the room as did basically everyone in the room. No one spoke up though, so the Colonel continued. “If your name is chosen, you are to go directly up these stairs to the shuttle, where you will be met by the two people that I have already chosen. Lieutenant Scott has pilot training. TJ's skills as a medic will be essential on the planet. If your name is not chosen, you are to remain here until I receive word the fifteen are aboard and the shuttle's hatch is secure. Does anyone have anything to say?” Again no one else spoke and instead looked around scared and nervously.

The Colonel then closed the lid of the box and shook it a bit so that the pieces of paper inside of it would be more or less randomly distributed. Finally he placed the box down again, opened the box and pulled out the first paper. “Airman Becker.” The man didn't move at first and just looked shocked. “Go”, the Colonel said reaffirming and then the Airman moved up the steps. Colonel Young meanwhile pulled out the next paper. “David Walters.” Unlike Becker Walters didn't hesitate and immediately went towards the staircase. “Camile Wray.” The woman went up the staircase and worriedly looked back at the other people. “Lieutenant James.” The young woman looked down from her position on the staircase as if she could not believe her luck. The Colonel merely nodded towards her upon which she left her position. “Dr. Park.” Elsa didn't know whether she should be glad or sad about her friend being chosen for this. Nevertheless since she was standing next to her Elsa smiled at her and wished her luck. Knowing that she wouldn't be selected Elsa merely counted the people that were called forth. Eight people later Adam Brody was chosen who tapped Eli on the shoulder as he went and in turn was patted by David Volker. “Sergeant Riley.” Eli handed the Kino he had hold in his hand to the Sergeant apparently seeing no more chance to be selected himself. The next and last name the Colonel announced confirmed this. “And Doctor Boone.” Elsa could hear the sighs and gasps of disappointment still not sure that the people really understood what it would mean to 'survive' on one of those planets. “That's fifteen. We're done here.”

“You can fit more people on that thing.”Elsa wasn't surprised at all to see that it had been Spencer again.

“Spencer, I need you to shut up.”

“Come on, people, if we don't do something right now, we're done!”

“He's right. We gotta do something”, someone in the crowd said.

_Oh no, no, no, no. That's not good!_ Elsa mentally readied herself to use her powers to stop anyone who would try to run up the stairs. The crowd started to turn into a mob, but then Sergeant Greer hit Spencer in the head with the hilt of the rifle he had held. This knocked Spencer to the floor where he lay unconsciously.

“Now, I don't want to have to do that to anybody else... but I will”, the Sergeant said, pointing his rifle towards the unconscious figure on the floor. She didn't necessarily agree with Greer's hands-on method, but it seemed to work as the crowd was silent again. A few seconds went by and then the Colonel's radio came to life.

“ _This is Scott. Everyone's aboard. Rear hatch is secure.”_

“Give yourself a sixty second countdown, Lieutenant. Some of us would like to see you off.”

“ _Copy that.”_ Elsa took that as a cue that they could now leave and she definitely didn't want to miss that sight. So she went towards the observation deck with Eli, Chloe, Greer and Young behind her.

* * *

As Elsa entered the observation deck she noticed that Rush was already there, standing in front of the railing. She and the others joined him there. In front of them, highlighted by the red light of the star ahead of them, they saw the form of the shuttle slowly lifting of from the structure it had been attached to for so long. Once it was clear it turned a bit to the right.

“The Kino's sending back pictures.” Elsa went away from the railing and instead positioned herself behind Eli to look over his shoulder onto the display of the remote he held in his hands.

“ _This is Scott, we're away.”_

“You're looking good, Lieutenant”, Colonel Young answered into his radio.

“ _I expect we'll be out of radio range by the time we fire up the main drive, so... we'll be thinking of you guys.”_

“You too, brother.” Sergeant Green said into his own radio. “You, too.”

“Matthew, TJ, take good care of these people.” Elsa glimpsed up from the remote's display to see how the shuttle fired up its main engines: four thrusters, located in pairs of two on the left and right of the rear hatch. The shuttle took up speed and left _Destiny_ 's deadly course.

“There it is”, Eli announced and held up his remote for everyone to see. Elsa would correct him later on regarding the pronoun.

“That's the _Destiny_?”, Chloe asked while everyone moved closer to take a look at the ship. Of course Elsa had seen the schematics, but it was something entirely different to see a live feed of the ship. She could see the round back of the ship where the engines were located and stretching forward like an arrow with concave slopes. At the center of the back there appeared to be a structure that almost resembled a pyramid. From the angle the Kino looked at the ship it appeared to be completely bathed in the red light of the star. Shortly after that the picture went white as the light overloaded the Kino's sensor. Eli lowered the remote again and everyone stood in silence for a moment until Rush spoke up with a smile on his lips.

“Thank you, Eli. I never thought I'd get the a chance to see the ship from the outside.” Eli nodded, pleased with the compliment.

“Yes, _she_ 's beautiful”, Elsa said though nobody seemed to take note of her stressing the pronoun.

“You know what, I think I'm going to go for a walk”, Colonel Young announced and then turned to Sergeant Greer. “How's that sound, Sergeant?”

“Sounds like a plan, sir”, the addressed soldier answered.

“I shall be in my quarters for the duration. I have a hundred pages of a truly mediocre book to finish”, Rush said. Young held out his hand towards Rush who merely blinked at it at first, but then shook it. Then the Colonel turned to Elsa.

“It was a pleasure to meet you.” Surprised by his words though recognizing the subtext she fell back into her old habit and merely curtsied.

“It's been mine as well”, she responded with a smile. The Colonel looked at the others and then left the observation deck, Sergeant Greer followed him.

“Eli, I-uh, I'm sorry I got you involved in this”, Rush then said.

“Actually... I'm not.” Considering their talk earlier it didn't surprise Elsa that much to hear that. “Yet”, he added, chuckling. “I'll probably be sorry at the end of the day, but...” Rush turned away then. “We don't have that long, do we?”

“No”, Rush answered, shaking his head.

“How will it happen?”, Chloe asked looking towards the star.

“Well, there will be, uh, turbulence from the solar wind, far worse than what we previously experienced. Heat, obviously, and intense G-forces. I suspect the ship will be torn apart long before we reach the star.” That's basically how Elsa had expected the day to end though Chloe looked much more frightened. Reassuringly she smiled at the young woman.

“Hopefully it will be quick”, she said. Then she turned around to look at Rush. “Dr. Rush, it has been an honor to work for you although I've not always agreed with your decisions.” He looked at her surprised.

“It has been surprisingly satisfying for me as well.” He nodded towards Elsa, Eli and Chloe and left the room.

“Well... uhm... would you two mind me staying here?” Normally Elsa wouldn't have minded to be alone, enjoyed it even, but not today, not with death only being mere hours away.

“Of course you can stay”, Eli smiled and leaned onto the railing looking at the star ahead of them. Chloe leaned onto his right shoulder and looked ahead as well. Elsa meanwhile kept her distance to the two, but leaned onto the railing as well.

* * *

After a while the three of them had moved onto the lounge that stood a bit away from the railing to the right of the entrance when facing the windows. Chloe was still cuddled up to Eli, the two holding hands and Elsa meanwhile had tried to meditate a bit. Not that it helped much though as there were simply too many thoughts on her mind. Among them whether or not Chloe was aware what kind of signals she had been sending Eli or what he had made out of these signals.

Around half an hour ago as the star already filled out the complete view out of the windows and the ship had just flown through the corona Elsa noticed that her sister had appeared on one of the stools at the bar, looking at her with eyes full of optimism and energy. Elsa herself had definitely lost any optimism she might have had. It would merely be minutes until they'd all be dead. Would she ascend like her sister did? Somehow she doubted it since she had already technically died some hours ago and instead of ascending she had seen her family again. Slowly she got up and walked over to the railing looking at the star's surface below them. It looked like an ocean, but it wasn't a quiet, deep blue, but a fierce red with streams of gas trailing along what Elsa assumed were magnetic field lines. All in all in was a beautiful and calming sight despite it being thousands of degrees hot – no matter if Celsius or Fahrenheit. If only her powers would be strong enough to turn this star into a giant snowball and to evaporate it afterwards. But then again their problems wouldn't be solved with this. They'd still be on a dead ship floating through space and instead of a quick death in a star they'd die a horrible, slow death either by dehydration, starvation, suffocation or hypothermia. Well... the last one for everyone except her of course. She sighed. In a way it was prophetic that they'd all die in a star. After all the atoms that made up their bodies were once forged inside other stars before their deaths and now they'd return back to one; the circle was complete.

Only now mere moments from her death it occurred to her that Anna might have been right. She unnecessarily blamed herself for the deaths that had happened earlier. Although she might have made a difference it wouldn't have been a sure game. The Senator would have died either way and Palmer and Curtis might have dialed to a different planet anyway. And maybe, just maybe she didn't want her life to end just yet. Not with this amazing discovery she was standing in and knowing that her family would wait for her however long it might take. Her immortality granted her a unique chance to see mankind evolve. And it would have continued to do that for the time to come.

She concentrated back on the red sea below the ship. The star's surface looked so close that she imagined that she could touch it if she'd just reach out.

_Wait a second._ Hadn't Rush said that they'd die long before they'd reach the star? They were right at its outer atmosphere and had already crossed the corona which would have been even hotter than the star's surface. Not to mention the solar winds that should have sent _Destiny_ tumbling uncontrolled onto the star. She didn't hear any stresses on the hull either and she was still able to see: The star's immense light should have fried her retina hours ago. Something was definitely not right, at least not when incoming death was considered right. If the ship was so well off then this could only mean that there still were shields around the ship that were protecting it. And that meant... that could only mean...

With wide eyes she turned around where she knew her sister was sitting. Her younger sibling sent her the widest grin she had in a long time and held up both of her thumbs as if to say “Great, you solved it”. But instead of saying it out loud she merely vanished into thin air. Elsa swore at this moment that if the two of them should ever be able to physically interact again she'd cross out any chocolate privilege her younger sister might have or if that wasn't feasible she'd find something else to punish her.

Just then Dr. Rush entered the observation deck again. He focused on Elsa right away, probably taking note of her still wide eyes.

“You noticed as well?”, Rush asked with a smile.

Elsa needed a moment to collect herself again, but then she smiled as well, laughing even. “Yes. Yes, I did.”

“Uh, what are we so happy about?”, Eli interrupted, leaning forward. Elsa and Rush looked at each other in a seldom moment of mutual understanding and he merely gestured for her to bring the news.

“We're going to live!”, she said, restraining herself not to break into a childlike scream of joy. Immediately Eli got up.

“What about the... turbulence and the heat and the death?”

“We shouldn't be able to lead this discussion, Eli, but... the shield's protecting us.”

“But you said we ran out of power”, Chloe said into Rush's direction.

“I was absolutely certain of that, and I've never been more pleased to be wrong in all my life.” He grinned at the two young people for a moment then went out of the room. Elsa followed right away with Eli closely behind.

* * *

Once the three of them had entered the Interface Control Room they were greeted by a sight Elsa hadn't thought she'd see again: the apple core was lit and the consoles were active as well. The remainder of the room was still dark however. Each of them went to one of the consoles and analyzed the data listed there.

“I assume that _Destiny_ is refilling her reserves”, Rush said after a few seconds.

“You're right. The systems are coming back on line all over the ship”, Eli confirmed and sure enough Elsa began to notice the low humming noise that she had already missed. Then a new voice joined the three of them.

“There's a rumor spreading we're still here.” It was Colonel Young who limped into the room. Just then the lights in the room came on.

“We are. _Destiny_ needed all her power reserves to protect herself and us”, Rush replied. Elsa meanwhile had found something truly fascinating.

“Gentlemen? We're _in_ the star.” She pressed a few buttons and the holographic screen came online showing their current trajectory and sure enough they were well below the outer layers of the star's atmosphere.

“That can't be right”, Young said and limped around the apple core towards the holographic display. “We're talking thousands of degrees.”

“We already flew through the corona on our way here. Not to mention the gravitational stresses and magnetic fields”, Elsa supplied.

“This is what _Destiny_ intended from the moment she entered the star system”, Rush added. Young turned around to face the scientist.

“You're telling me it flew into the sun on purpose?” Another one Elsa would need to talk with regarding the ship's pronouns.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“To replenish its reserves.”

“You're telling me this ship...” Colonel Young however couldn't finish his thought as Rush interrupted him.

“This ship is powered by the stars themselves. Solar powered, quite literally. There is no other explanation.”

“Only this way the ship could have come along this far. _Atlantis_ was powered by three ZPMs and that was just enough for 10,000 years”, Elsa added and just then the ship vibrated a bit.

“The engine just came back on. We're pulling out of it”, Eli said.

Elsa however noticed the Colonel's concerned look towards the countdown clock which had lit up again and counted down from around three hours.

“The shuttle!”, the he exclaimed. “We've gotta call them back.”

“Okay, looking for a way to access communications”, Elsa said and began to search through the Ancient menus.

“I'm working on it”, Rush announced and Young moved closer to the scientist.

“Well, you know, if you can't figure it out before we go into FTL...”

“Plenty of time.”

“We can't strand those people here.” Now Rush turned to look at Colonel Young.

“Well, this would be an excellent time for you to trust me to solve this problem”, he said sarcastically and once he noticed that the Colonel was more or less satisfied with this answer he turned back to work on his console.

* * *

It had taken Elsa, Rush and Eli around half an hour to figure out how the communication system worked, but finally they had managed it.

“You may speak now, Colonel”, Elsa said with a satisfied voice.

“This is Young, come in.” It took a while until an answer came, but when it did it was nearly as clear as if the person speaking was standing right next to them in this room.

“ _Th-this is Scott. Sir. How the hell...?”_

“We're just as surprised as you are, Lieutenant. I'll explain later. You need to get your ass back aboard this ship.” They all could hear the cries of relief and elation from the people on the shuttle.

“ _Look, there it is!”_ It was TJ's voice they heard.

“ _Will do, Scott out. Everybody hear that?”_ More applauding and cries of joy could heard. _“We have a visual of you,_ Destiny _. Plotting an intercept course now.”_ A few seconds passed until the Lieutenant could be heard again. _“Uh, Colonel, stand by. Brody, come here.”_ Elsa could hear Brody and Scott whispering.

“ _Oh, you've got to be kidding me.”_ It was Brody's voice and he got louder. _“We're so close. You-you can almost touch it! It's right there!”_ There was more talking among the shuttle crew they couldn't understand until Scott addressed them again.

“ _Colonel, we have a problem here.”_

“What is it?”

“ _We can see you, but the shuttle's computer cannot come up with an intercept solution.”_ Upon hearing that Elsa immediately turned her attention back to her console and started her own calculations. _“_ Destiny _is accelerating too fast. I'm trying to put something in manually here.”_ A pause. _“There's no way to cross the 'T', sir. We're going to fall short.”_

“You're on full power, yes?”, Rush asked.

“ _I put the throttle up right away. It's- it's just not going to be enough.”_

“You must have afterburners or something-”, Eli began, but was sharply interrupted by Scott.

“ _It's not an F-16, Eli. It's a- it's a spaceship.”_

“Is there anything we can do from this end?”, the Colonel asked.

“ _Is there any way to slow the_ Destiny _down?”_ , TJ asked.

“ _That- that would do it”_ , Scott confirmed and Young looked to Rush who merely shook his head.

“Negative.” A few seconds of radio silence followed.

“ _Uh, we're out of ideas, here.”_

“Come on. Come on.” The Colonel looked at all three geniuses. Elsa then had an idea.

“Scott. I want you to turn and head directly towards the planet. We'll send you an exact course in a moment.” From the corners of her eyes Elsa noticed how Eli went to work immediately. Likely he had picked up on her thought.

“ _No, no, no, no, no. The planet is a rock. We'd rather take our chances with-”_

“Just do it, Scott. Trust me”, Elsa insisted.

“She's right”, Rush said towards Young. “In order to reach the star, _Destiny_ used an aerobraking maneuver to slow down. Elsa's idea is to have Lieutenant Scott perform a slingshot maneuver around the planet to do exactly the opposite.”

The Colonel nodded. “A gravity boost to speed up.”

“It should put _Destiny_ directly in their path.”

“ _We're all aboard with that idea. Just give me the course and speed. This planet's getting pretty big in the windows here.”_

“Working on it”, Elsa said busy. She was good at math, but she wasn't fast in solving complex formulas in her head and performing an improvised orbit calculation definitely fell into the category 'complex formula'.

“I got it”, Eli announced and Elsa looked up surprised.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Eli.”, Rush said and hurried over to Eli's console. “There's many variables here. Are you sure about this?”

“Math Boy”, he said confidently.

“Send it to me, fast”, Elsa hushed and Eli complied. She scanned through his solution as fast as possible and then nodded towards the two men who were looking at her.

“Okay, Math Boy. Sending the new course now”, Rush said and entered a command sequence into Eli's console.

“Is this going to work?”, Young asked.

“It's going to be close”, Elsa replied in a low voice.

“ _Got it. All right, everybody, hang on again.”_

Elsa was keeping an eye on the console display in front of her that showed a little white dot that represented the shuttle flying around one of the system's planets and then moving closer towards them. Once they got closer Eli put the display up on the holographic screen.

“That's them”, he said and moved closer towards the screen. “Why am I watching this on TV?”, he asked confused and darted out of the room. Colonel Young meanwhile walked closer to the screen, watching as the dot came closer towards them.

“You've got us lined up. You're doing fine.”

“No, he isn't. We're coming up on them too fast”, Rush countered. “Lieutenant, our relative velocity is too great. Unless you can match our speed, you're going to crash into the ship.”

“ _Uh, this is all we got.”_ Again they could hear murmurs in the shuttle. Probably they were trying to line up the shuttle with the docking port.

“Scott, fire maneuvering thrusters! It might just be enough.”, Elsa exclaimed.

“ _All right.”_ A few seconds passed. _“Main engines off.”_ They could hear a grinding noise through the radio and then a loud crash. _“Uh, thrusters off! Docking clamps engaged. We're still in one piece!”_

“Well done! Well done”, Colonel Young said and hurried out of the room as fast as his injured leg allowed, patting Rush on the shoulder on the way. Elsa smiled as she heard Scott's last message through the radio.

“ _We're on our way down.”_

They had survived, they all had survived.

* * *

A part of the crew had gathered in the mess hall to celebrate their reunion. At one of the tables Elsa sat together with Colonel Young, Lieutenant Scott, TJ, Chloe, Sergeant Greer, Eli and Camile Wray. Airman Becker had already served them their bowls of rations and they were all happily chatting with each other.

“Who would have thought that this ship plunges itself into a star on purpose!”, Eli joked.

“It's _herself_ , Eli”, Elsa scolded though smiling as well.

“What's it with you and those female pronouns? And it seems you infected Rush with that as well”, Eli continued.

“On Earth ships often have female pronouns and I think, no I believe this ship” She gestured all around her. “Has earned this honor as well considering how long she's flying already. She's older than anything Ancient that we know of.”

Everyone looked at her for a few seconds then Colonel Young, who sat at the table's head, spoke up. “Okay then. _Her_ it is.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you. And you, too, Eli. Without you two and Rush we wouldn't have gotten the shuttle back.”

“Ah, no problem”, replied Eli.

“It's just what we do here on this ship. Solve problems”, Elsa said with a shrug, not that she wasn't happy about the compliment.

“About the landing though.” The Colonel turned to look at Scott. “I'm dead serious about it. That was the worst shuttle docking I have ever seen in my life.” Everyone laughed.

“What are you talking about? I barely even dented it?”, Scott defended.

“What was that grinding noise?”, TJ said with a laugh.

“At the very least, there is a giant scrape along the bottom. I'm going to make you put on a spacesuit, go out there, fix it right now.” He turned to Greer. “Sergeant, we're going to need some of that high temperature spaceship paint for, uh, Scott here.”

The Sergeant hold up his bowl. “Yes, sir. I believe I have... found some.” Everyone laughed again.

Just then Rush entered the room.

“Dr. Rush, have a seat. These two have even showered”, the Colonel said gesturing roughly into the direction of Eli and Scott. Elsa's face turned into a light shade of red though as she remembered that she hadn't. The first thing she had done once everyone had been back on the ship was to make good on her promise and to let her laptop charge on the charging plate that Sergeant Riley and some scientists had discovered. The Sergeant had told her what a wonderful birthday present it was that she had remembered this. Apparently he turned a year older while the shuttle had been on its way to the planet – it had been around midnight then – and the crew on _Destiny_ had not yet known that they wouldn't die today.

Dr. Rush though went on to the center column where Becker distributed the rations.

“No, thanks.”

“Come on, we should celebrate.”

“Celebrate what? That we're back to where we started?” Everyone sighed, Elsa rolled her eyes and Colonel Young dipped his head in frustration.

“Aw, come on, have a seat, Rush”, Scott said.

“Some other time.”

“All right”, the Colonel then said. “Well Becker, give him a double ration. He deserves it.”

“Why's that, then?”, Rush asked startled.

“I'm in a good mood.”

“We're to be rewarded at your whim, then?” At this the Colonel got up and walked over to where Rush was standing at the column.

“No, no. Just stop. What, you want some reasons? I'll give you three. You were right about the power situation.”

“Not really”, Rush said between eating his ration.

“You figured out the subspace communications, how to call the shuttle.”

“Elsa and Eli helped and we needed to get those supplies back.”

“You took your name out of the lottery.”

“So did you”, Rush countered while pointing his spoon into Young's direction.

“I was injured. You actually made a sacrifice.”

The two men continued to stare at each other and despite that all chatting in the mess hall had stopped once Rush had entered it appeared as if the room had become even more silent.

“Unless you knew... that the _Destiny_ was going to make it all along.”

Elsa could see Rush blinking at first and then grimacing. “Cheers, everyone.” He placed his bowl on the table next to him and left the room. Everyone's eyes followed him.

“Aw, let it go, sir”, Greer then said with a half-hearted chuckle.

“He didn't know. I-I saw his face”, Eli provided.

“There's no way”, Scott added.

“No.”

“What if he did?”, Young asked.

“He's right, Colonel. Let it go”, Elsa then said. She wasn't entirely sure herself whether Rush knew or not. The smile he wore when he had entered the observation deck at least appeared to be genuine and she wasn't sure in how far he was able to fake such a smile. He had never outright lied to her. Sure, he didn't acknowledge her work as much as he should, he followed his own agenda and was more miserable with social interactions than she had been after her years of isolation, but so far she had at least thought that she could trust him. What if she was wrong? Just like Anna had been wrong about Hans...

Hopefully they wouldn't have to face similar situations in the future. Then again _Destiny_ was old and they hadn't full access to the ship. Anything could happen in the future. Elsa sighed internally and looked around her at the people gathered at the table. For a split second she noticed that Camile Wray had looked at her suspiciously, but had turned away as soon as Elsa had looked into her direction. That was another topic she would have to deal with. But not now.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So of course they have all survived this little encounter with the star and they've learned a valuable lesson regarding Destinys energy source.
> 
> Again the next chapter will be up in one to two weeks and if you know what the episode is about you'll know what will come ;)
> 
> Update: corrected Elsa's and Wray's honorifics in one scene and wrote Atlantis in italics.


	7. Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "One or two weeks", he said. "Then there'll be the next chapter", he said. Oh well... I'm sorry that it took me around four weeks to finish this chapter. I had already finished it a week ago, but then my beta had been busy and I definitely didn't want to publish this without her looking over my Germanisms. ;) Anyway, here we are!
> 
> And thanks to A Mountain Sage on FF.net who pointed out that the honorific for Elsa shouldn't be "Mrs." if she isn't married (which she isn't). I've already corrected the previous chapters (including Light) and also did the corrections and retcons I had mentioned at the beginning of the last chapter.
> 
> With 12,766 words this is the longest chapter so far and only around 1,000 words short of my first ever fic I had written more than 10 years ago. ;)
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

It had taken Elsa a few moments to understand the shower's armature, but finally she had managed to turn it on and eagerly awaited it to wash away the stress from the previous days. From nozzles all around her a white mist started to appear and soon touched her bare skin. She had expected it to be cold, like natural mists on Earth, but instead it comfortably warm. It wasn't as hot as steam however which she would have enjoyed as well. She might not be bothered by low temperatures, but that didn't mean that she'd not enjoy a hot bath or a visit to a sauna. After all she also liked hot chocolate very much. Though she'd need to live without that for the time being. Once the mist had fully engulfed her she began to distribute the wetness it carried on her body and let her thoughts wander.

She had woken up a quarter of an hour ago at around one o'clock in the afternoon. After yesterday's events which had ended in the reunion with the shuttle crew she had slept without any disturbance by a nightmare this time and thus was very relaxed. Maybe the shining waves that flew around the ship and along her window also reminded her body of those times back in Arendelle when the aurora borealis was lighting up the night sky. Since she hadn't managed to take a shower before she went to bed she had decided to do exactly that after having gotten up. She had gathered her towel and had gone off to the showers that were located a few corridors away.

Considering that they hadn't a fully worked out activity schedule yet Elsa was glad that the others had just let her sleep. Would they introduce something like shifts or would they just let _Destiny_ be during the night? At least what they considered night based on the watches they had brought with them and which were set to Greenwich time from their stay on the planet of Icarus base.

If there wouldn't be a ship wide emergency today she would pay another visit to the cargo hold, Elsa decided. With the power restored she could look at a few nice discoveries she had found when she had skimmed through the database that was on her computer. A harrumph however interrupted her thoughts and she looked up to see past the wall with the frosted glass – or whatever material it was – that separated her shower area from the central hub of the room. On the bench in the center where she had put her clothes she noticed Anna sitting there dressed in her usual white garb.

“Good morning, Anna”, Elsa said with a smile.

“Good morning to you, too. I see you enjoy the showers?” Her younger sister nodded towards Elsa.

“Yeah, I really needed that right now. And after even Eli and Scott have showered it would be bad if I didn't.”

“I'd really like to feel a shower. Of course I could imagine it myself, but since we never had one back in the castle it would likely fall quite short of the real experience...”, Anna said with a sad smile.

“Yes, it would be really nice to interact with you more. Even after 140 years I still miss physical contact with you. And I really appreciate what you did the previous night after my nightmare.”

“I'm glad I could help.”

Elsa continued to clean off her body when a though t occurred to her. “You knew that  _Destiny_ would make it, right?”

“Of course I did. Though you know quite well that I couldn't tell you.”

“Yes, yes. But that's not what I'm hinting at.”

“Oh? Then what is it?”, Anna asked, cocking her head to one side.

“You said that I had chosen the easy way out by staying on _Destiny_ , but yet here I am, alive and well. So in the end I had made the right choice, don't you think?” Elsa noticed that her younger sibling pondered upon this a bit before she answered.

“Yes and no. Of course you made the right choice in the end by staying on the ship, but you need to see my statement in the context of your limited view back then. You didn't know that you'd survive and I couldn't tell you that you would. So what should I have done? Console you that it's not the end or something like that? I bet you already had the feeling that something didn't add up since I had told you mere hours earlier that _Destiny_ is our destiny.”

“Yeah, you're right, I did have a strange feeling about that situation. Though I hadn't honestly expected that we'd survive till we were inside that star.”

Anna giggled. “Yes, I  so noticed that.”

“I still can't help but wonder how you manage to keep all that knowledge to yourself. I mean, especially you.”

“Hey! I wasn't that bad with secrets back in Arendelle... at least not the important ones...” Anna smiled sheepishly. “But yes, it's like so hard not to tell you everything I know. The only thing that keeps me going is that if I would spill these secrets I would no longer be allowed to interact with you. And I don't want that to happen.”

“Yeah. Me neither.”

* * *

A few minutes later and dressed in the clothes of the previous days Elsa went to the mess hall to get her hands on a bowl of rations. She noticed Lisa Park and Adam Brody sitting at one of the tables each of them having a bowl in front of them. She picked up a bowl herself and went over to the two doctors.

“Good day, Lisa, Dr. Brody.” Politely she nodded to each of them.

“Hi Elsa, do you want to join?”, Lisa greeted and gestured to her side.

“Good morning, Elsa”, Brody said.

“If you wouldn't mind, yes”, Elsa replied to Lisa and sat down next to her, placing the bowl on the table.

“You know, you don't need to use that title. Everyone here seems to just call me Brody”, the engineer said.

“Okay, then I will, too.” Elsa giggled. “Though it seems I'm the only one who prefers to be called by her first name.”

“Well, Agdarsdatter is quite a mouthful”, Lisa laughed. Elsa smiled and began to eat the hydrated protein powder.

“So... anything interesting happened this morning?”, she asked after a while.

“Well, we've started to put together a couple of spacesuits we found in one of the smaller storage rooms”, the other woman replied. “Some of them look in quite good shape, but others might be a bit more problematic.”

“Oh, good to know that we have spacesuits. Who knows when those might come in handy.”

“I myself am nearly finished with that elevator leading towards that cargo hold with the damaged crane”, Brody said and internally Elsa gulped. Once anyone else would enter the cargo hold they would notice that her cover story of how she managed to get hold of the CO2 scrubber compound had been just that: a cover story. But shouldn't he work on more important matters? Not that she thought that the components that were stored in that room weren't important, but Colonel Young had told her that he'd put the task of repairing the elevator further down on Brody's to-do-list. Neither Lisa nor Brody noticed Elsa's distress however.

“And what are your plans for today?”, Lisa asked.

“I don't know yet. Probably poking around in the computer systems to try and gain access to the more important systems. Though I do hope that we won't get another problem today...”

 

* * *

After talking a bit more with Park and Brody  Elsa had gone to the Interface Control Room and started to work on one of the consoles that wasn't occupied by either Rush or Eli. She had looked at the map overlay for the crew quarters – and inserted 'Office of Colonel Young'  at the right place – and noticed to her satisfaction that a few crew members had already added in their quarters. Though she would have to do a bit more advertising for the map and she'd need to find a way so that everyone could access it. She already had an idea how to do this with the help of some items she had found in the database of the cargo hold,  she'd just need to find the time to go back there. Just then Colonel Young entered the room. She noticed that he wasn't walking with a crutch anymore though he still had a bit of a limp.

“Looks like we've got ourselves the next problem”, he said without a word of greeting.

“And what would that be now?”, Rush said without looking up from his console.

“The level in the water tank has dropped drastically.” Now Rush looked up.

“By how much?”, Elsa asked.

“We seem to have lost around thirty thousand liters since we last checked before the power loss.” At this the eyes of the three others in the room widened. That was a third of the reserves they had! How could so much water just vanish like this?

“We'll look for a possible cause immediately”, Rush announced and turned his attention back to the console. The Colonel didn't seem fully satisfied by the answer of the head scientist, but he let it be for now and left the room.

“Hmm... maybe we can request _Destiny_ to look out for planets with water”, Elsa suggested after a few seconds. _And if we don't find one maybe I'll need to take matters into my own hands._

“That is indeed a viable solution, but we should find out why we lost so much water in the first place”, Rush replied.

“Of course. I never said that we shouldn't.”

“Hey, uhm... before we go hunting for the... uh, leak, I have some other news I discovered”, Eli said.

“What is it, Eli?”, Elsa asked and Rush looked to him as well.

“I've run an analysis of the power systems, at least as far as we have access to it, and while _Destiny_ might be fully charged right now her capacity isn't what it used to be.”

“Considering her age I think that is to be expected. How bad is it?”

“We have  less than forty percent of  _ Destiny _ 's original capacity available to us.”

“Is it enough to dial Earth?” Elsa noticed  Rush jerking  up on this question, but she needed to ask anyway. Not for her own sake, but for the sake of all the other misplaced people on this ship.

“Not even remotely. If she ever could then this capability was lost millennia ago”, Eli answered sadly.

“Hey there, no reason to give up”, Elsa said reassuringly. “Maybe we'll find a way to repair whatever  _ Destiny _ uses to store the energy once we've ensured our survival. Her technology is much closer to ours than that of  _ Atlantis _ so we might have a good chance here.”

She could see how Eli thought about what she had said. It took a few moments till he answered. “Yeah, right. I hope we'll find a way.”

 

* * *

The three of them had looked through the schematics of the water system and any system that was directly  or indirectly  connected to it for the next two hours or so. They had found nothing yet, but again Colonel Young entered the Control Interface Room.

“Any progress?”

“No, the system is closed of, so the water couldn't have evaporated while we were in the sun”, Elsa reported after seeing that Rush didn't plan to pay the Colonel any unnecessary attention. Did he consider her as his secretary or what? “Also the recycling system we're trying to get working and thus could be a possible cause does not report any leaks. Maybe we should get Brody to look at it instead of trying to get the elevator to the cargo hold working.” She noticed that this last statement definitely got the Colonel's attention as she could see his eyes widening a bit. Maybe Brody had decided by himself to prioritize the elevator without consulting with Young. She couldn't blame him though as she wanted to get her hands on the fantastic stuff that was stored down there as fast as possible as well.

“I'll arrange that right away since we're down by another ten thousand liters.”

“Wait, what?”

“But... how?! We kept an eye on the systems the whole time!”, Eli said as surprised as Elsa was.

“I don't know, that's why I came to you three.”

“Then we've got a serious problem”, Rush said after having deemed the discussion worthy of his attention.

“Well, we wouldn't, if you did what I asked you to do in the first place.”

“Oh, please”, Rush dismissed. “Can we stick to one problem at a time?”

“Running out of water wouldn't matter if we'd just dial Earth and go home.”

“We can't”, Elsa threw in.

“The ship's recharged. The power reserves are full.”

“That's the point! They're not!”, Rush exclaimed.

“Well, where are we at then?!”

“Well, we're probably about... less than forty percent of originally designed capacity.”

The Colonel sneered. “You think I can't tell when someone just pulls a number out of his ass?”

“What?!”, Rush said, taken back by this remark.

“Uh, _I_ actually pulled that number out of _my_ ass. He's not making it up”,  Eli explained.

“It's true, Colonel. If _Destiny_ was ever capable of dialing Earth that was long ago. We'll need to find ways to repair her power storages if we want to ever get her back to that capability.”

“Well, then, you're right. We have a problem”, Colonel Young said, looking at Rush.

“Yes”, the scientist confirmed.

“Again.” The two men stared at each other for a while and Elsa could feel the tension between them. At last though Rush broke away.

“Eli, I need your help with something”, the Colonel then said and Eli pointed at himself with a surprised look. “Yes, come with me.” The two men left the room leaving Elsa and Rush to work out their problems with the water reservoir.

 

* * *

Around an hour of inconclusive search later  _Destiny_ had dropped out of FTL and Elsa and Rush had gone into the gate room where they were already met by Sergeant Riley who kept an eye on the already dialing Stargate. Not long after the two had arrived Eli entered the room as well with a Kino in hand.

“That's the only Stargate in range”, Riley reported.

“Then let's hope it's because we requested _Destiny_ to look out for water”, Elsa said. The seventh chevron locked and after the usual clicking noise the gate activated by forming the unstable vortex that shot out of the gate before it settled into the curly surface of the event horizon.

“Only one way to find out”, Eli chirped, placed the Kino in the air and used the remote he had in one of his pockets to fly the little camera into the gate. Just as the Kino vanished through the wormhole Colonel Young and Sergeant Greer walked into the room.

“What have we got?”, Young asked.

“One planet in range; _Destiny_ already dialed it up and we sent a Kino through”, Elsa reported. “We should get readings any second now.” And just then the console in front of her lit up and showed a white landscape with what appeared to be a blizzard. _That looks_ _like my kind of place_ , Elsa thought with a smile.

“Whoa! Looks like we entered the Hoth system”, Eli exclaimed, upon which Elsa needed to stifle a laughter while the Colonel looked at him with a deadpan expression. “ _Empire Strikes Back_. The second _Star Wars_ movie. Okay, I refuse to call it _Episode V_.”

“Eli, it's okay... not everyone shares your love for nerdy things”, Elsa said and leaned towards him with a hand at her mouth as if she wanted Colonel Young not to hear what she said next. “But I do.”

“If we could all concentrate again, please?”, Rush interrupted. “We have minus 47 degrees Celsius there.”

“Bundle up”, Sergeant Greer threw in.

“And it seems that we really have water ice”, Elsa continued. “The atmosphere however is dangerously thin.”

“And poisonous”, Riley provided. “Thirteen percent molecular oxygen, 95 percent carbon dioxide with a hint of argon.”

“Oooh, nasty planet”, Greer commented.

“The only candidate within range”, Rush said.

“We're going the have to use the spacesuits we found. But if that brings back half a ton of ice, I'll take it. Shut it down for now”, Colonel Young commanded and Riley obliged. The gate shut down and Young grabbed his radio. “Lieutenant Scott, come in please.” A pause. No answer came though. “Scott?” Another pause, still no answer. “Lieutenant Scott, come in!” Again no answer came. The Colonel waited for a few seconds then keyed the radio again. “Lieutenant James, come in.”

“ _Here James, sir.”_

“Please check the whereabouts of Lieutenant Scott. He doesn't answer his radio. I want him to meet me in the storage room with the spacesuits as soon as possible.”

“ _Copy that.”_

Colonel Young and Sergeant Greer both left the gate room, Elsa meanwhile looked back at the recording the Kino had sent from the planet – she was going to call it Hoth  to amuse Eli  – and which was still on repeat on the console in front of her. That planet might have water ice, but they didn't know whether the ice directly at the gate was clean  o r how far they'd need to travel to reach clean ice. It was a big gamble and maybe it was time for Elsa to face the truth and blow her cover.  After all the need of the many outweighed the need of the few, or the one. And n o one would need to risk his  or her live if she would simply create the require d ice  by herself.  She could even speed up the melting if need be.

Having made her decision she sprinted after the Colonel. He and the Sergeant hadn't come that far yet, so it was easy for Elsa to reach up to them.

“Colonel Young?”, she asked as soon as she was near them and both soldiers turned around as soon as they heard her.

“Yes, Elsa?”

“Can I talk to you, please?” She glanced at Greer. “Alone?”

“Of course.” The older of the two soldiers looked around and then spotted the door to one of the storage rooms. “Would there be okay?”

“Yes”, Elsa merely answered and walked towards the door. Those doors weren't exactly sound proof, but if they talked low enough it would be better than nothing. She opened the door using the door control and after confirming that the room was indeed empty she moved in.

“Keep eavesdroppers away from the door”, Colonel Young told the Sergeant and then followed Elsa into the room. As soon as both were in there she closed the door again. “I suspect this is about your powers?”

“Yes, Colonel. I don't think it's worth it to risk someone's life on the planet if I can simply create the ice with a flick of the wrist.”

“That thought occurred me as well, but I'm nevertheless against it.” Elsa wanted to complain, but the Colonel continued. “First of I want to keep the truth behind you hidden as long as possible.”

“But it's inevitable anyway!”, Elsa exclaimed. “Brody has nearly finished repairing the elevator and honestly we can make good use of the stuff in the cargo hold.”

“Might be, but for now I've covered him with more important work and made sure that he'd work on that first. And second I don't want us to rely on you too much.” Elsa was exasperated. Didn't he trust her? “Don't get me wrong, it's nothing personal. But what if we rely on you too much and then you or your powers aren't available to us for one reason or the other? Also I've read your file rather closely. You might have good control most of the time, but in extreme situations especially paired with physical exhaustion problems seem to arise nevertheless. And right now we are only living of rather tiny amounts of rations. We don't know how taxing this would be for you if you'd be to use your powers to improve our supply situation and we don't know how long _Destiny_ will take to find another planet with water. Understood?”

Elsa wasn't entirely convinced of Colonel Young's arguments. But it seemed that he had made up his mind already and she wasn't ready to put up a fight especially with someone potentially listening on the other side of the door. For a moment she thought about asking the Colonel to let her come to the planet as well so that she could help with her powers, but she couldn't right now think of a way to do this inconspicuously enough, so she dropped the thought again. Finally she nodded. “Yes, understood, Colonel. But if anything happens on that planet...”

“We will be fine, Elsa”, Colonel Young reassured and just like that she felt herself sent back around 170 years to another departure that had changed her life forever. But then something clicked in her brain.

“'We'?”, she asked.

“Yes, me and Lieutenant Scott and if we have enough suits available someone else will join us.”

“Oh.” For a moment she had expected he would have picked her to pay a visit to Hoth.

“It might be you as well. I know that you had spacesuit training in _Atlantis_.” The Colonel  started to turn towards the door. “Is there anything else?”

“No.”

“Good. I'll inform you should I pick you as third person if any.” He used the door control to open the door and continued together with Sergeant Greer towards the storage room with the spacesuits. Elsa stayed behind in the current room and collected her thoughts.

 

* * *

On her way back to the Interface Control Room Elsa passed a bulkhead door from behind  which she could faintly her a noise that sounded  as if someone  was  crying. She paused and leaned closer to the door. After a few seconds she was sure that whoever was on the other side was crying and that it was a woman. She didn't know who's quarter that was as it hadn't been marked on the map yet. Should she knock or should she ignore it?

She thought back at the day of her parent's funeral when she had locked herself in her room, because she couldn't trust her emotions, her room being a silent witness of that. If only she would have let Anna in back then, likely the whole disaster surrounding her coronation could have been avoided. Then again Anna might have never met Kristoff and Sven and maybe there wouldn't be an Olaf or a Marshmallow.

Elsa shook her head. No, that wasn't the right way to think. In that room was someone who was crying and she was able to help or at least was able to try to. Finally she brought her hand towards the door knocked on it. Immediately the crying on the other side stopped. It took a few more seconds until an answer came.

“Who... who's there?” If Elsa wasn't entirely wrong it was the voice of Vanessa James.

“It's Elsa. I heard you when I passed by your door and I'd like to offer my help if you want.” At first no answer came and she thought that the woman on the other side would ignore her. _So that's how Anna felt all those years._ After half a minute she wanted to turn around when the locking mechanism suddenly began to rotate and  soon enough the two massive door wings slid apart revealing indeed Vanessa James. Elsa looked at the young woman, the traces of her crying still visible on her face.

“Come in”, Lieutenant James said and gestured into her room. Elsa nodded and once she had cleared the threshold the soldier closed the door again. Elsa used the moment to look around. The room was smaller than her own with no window to the outside. There was no desk and no lounge and only a single chair next to a table. Anna had truly picked Elsa a nice and comfortable room in comparison.

James had meanwhile sat down on the bed and looked at Elsa expectantly. The blonde took the hint and sat down next to her with enough space between them.

“So... may I ask what happened?”, Elsa began, but Lieutenant James turned away, struggling for words as it seemed. Looking at her Elsa noticed that she was quite an attractive woman. She had an oval face with a pointed nose. Her eyes where dark brown and her long black hair was tied in a bun to keep it out of the way. And since her upper body was merely covered by her military shirt Elsa could see that she was a rather well endowed woman. Luckily she answered before Elsa's thoughts could drift into more dangerous areas.

“It's Scott.” Elsa noticed that the other woman's eyes were glazing over. “He... he's with Chloe.” Elsa already knew that, but nevertheless she looked at Lieutenant James encouragingly. “But back on the base he and I were...” James began to sob again, unable to continue. But she didn't need to, Elsa understood what was going on. She had seen her fair share of men throughout her life and quite some of them had behaved similar to Lieutenant Scott, most of the suitors her council had handpicked for her included. Elsa shifted closer towards Lieutenant James and put her hand around the younger woman, encouraging her into a hopefully healing hug or at least a shoulder to cry on. It didn't take long for the woman to give in and soon Elsa was rubbing her hand soothingly on the other woman's back humming the tones of a lullaby her mother used to sing when Elsa or Anna had been distressed.

The two continued to sit like this until the sobbing of Lieutenant James finally calmed down.

“Thank you, Elsa”, she said, still leaning onto the blonde.

“You're welcome”, Elsa said with a smile. “Has he broken up with you?”, she asked after a while.

“No.” If the only noises in the room wouldn't have been the humming of the ship and the breathing of the two woman then Elsa wouldn't have heard the answer. But she did and it made her angry.

“It seems that I'll need to have a talk with Mister Scott”, Elsa spat. “And we should talk with Chloe about this”, she added more softly. The other woman straightened herself and looked into Elsa's eyes.

“You think that will help?”

“At least he'll learn not to fool around with any woman as long as I am aboard”, Elsa smirked devilishly. She could see the doubt in Lieutenant James's eyes however and as it was Elsa couldn't prove right now that she was indeed capable of delivering that message, powers or not. “Trust me, Lieutenant James, he isn't the first crook I've dealt with.”

“You can call me Vanessa.” Elsa noticed a slight blush on the other woman's face, she chose however to ignore that as well as her own feelings right now and took Vanessa's hands into hers.

“Okay, then trust me, Vanessa.”

“I... I will.”

“Great!” Elsa smiled widely. “Are you going to be more or less okay for now?”, she asked concerned.

“I... think so”, Vanessa said after a short moment of thinking and Elsa let go of the other woman's hands after gently squeezing them for a second. Finally the blonde got up and righted her shirt.

“Then I'll get back to work again.” Elsa sent the young woman a reassuring smile and then left the room.

 

* * *

Half an hour later it was clear that only two suits were available and those would be taken by Colonel Young and Lieutenant Scott. The two of them  were  already in their suits  and in the gate room.  Elsa, Rush, Eli, TJ, Park, Riley and two other technicians were  there as well. The technicians did final checks on the spacesuits while Dr. Park explained the usage of a plasma cutter Young and Scott would use to cut the ice on Hoth.

“Uh, suit radio are voice activated between you”, she said once she was done with the plasma cutter. Eli handed her a remote and she pointed to a button on it. “Press here if you want to tie into the ship's communication systems.” She handed the remote to Lieutenant Scott who fastened it on a recess on the left forearm of his suit.

Elsa hadn't found the time to talk with Lieutenant Scott about Vanessa, so she had decided to deal with this topic after he and the Colonel had returned from the planet.

Colonel Young turned to look at  Tamara Johansen . “TJ. You're in command while we're gone.” Elsa rolled her eyes. Of course the Colonel would overlook every capable civilian person that could have taken command instead of the medic.  Not that she thought that TJ was incapable, but there would have been better choices and a lthough  Elsa wasn't eager to command anyone anymore that definitely included her – a former queen after all – as well. TJ merely nodded. “Is everybody clear on that?” The Colonel looked around to  check for any objections.

“Oh, I'm sure we'll manage”, Rush said with sarcasm. He was leaning on one of the walls in the background, his arms folded.

“Riley, start dialing”, Young ordered, completely ignoring the scientist's remark. Without a further word the Stargate lit up and began to spin.

“Assuming a fair amount of physical activity, you have just over eight hours of air”, Lisa Park continued to explain.

“It's what, eleven hours 'til the next jump to FTL, right?”, Scott asked while glancing at the countdown clock on the wall. It was clear that he couldn't read the Ancient digits. Considering that they would be on this ship for the foreseeable time maybe Elsa should provide lessons in Ancient. This way more of them would be able to work with the consoles without a linguist nearby.

“Don't worry”, Eli grinned. “You'll run out of air long before we'll leave you behind.”

“Thanks”, Scott merely answered and Elsa stifled a giggle. That wasn't something she should laugh about yet Eli quite often managed to trigger her just the right way. Unlike him though she wouldn't have said that aloud. Oh, she was quite capable of sass, that was sure. Kristoff had been the main recipient of that considering that he was just as sassy as she was, but then the two of them were rather close for being siblings-in-law. She wouldn't however use sassy comments with anyone she didn't know good enough and Scott fell into this category. Eli was a different topic however. Maybe she could sass up their conversations a bit.

The gate meanwhile had finished dialing and the event horizon had settled itself, bathing the  room that was lit this time in a faint blue-silvery  shimmer . The two soldiers put on their helmets and the gathered technicians made sure that they were fastened correctly. After an okay from the technicians Scott grabbed the box with the plasma cutter and Young a box Elsa knew contained  equipment to measure the quality and pureness of the ice. At last the two men stepped into the wormhole.

Eagerly they all waited for an answer which came after a few minutes.  _“_ Destiny _, this is Young, come in.”_

Considering that TJ was in command it was her turn to answer. “Yes, sir. We read you five by five.”  Even after five years on  _Atlantis_ Elsa still had troubles with those military expressions, though most of the times she  had been able to correctly  assume what they meant  with the help of  the context  they were used in . 

“ _I've just tested the ice by the Stargate. I read concentrations of ammonia and several other toxic chemicals.”_

“How high are the readings?”, Rush asked who had moved closer to the consoles in the meantime.

“ _Off the charts.”_ That was both impressive and bad at once. 

“Well, you could try looking further afield.”

“ _Maybe on the other side of that lake.”_

“ _Is that really a good idea, sir? The further away from the gate we go, the less ice we can bring back.”_ Another reason why  Elsa should have gone. She would have been able to transport the ice far more easily. However she noticed that Eli jerked up.

“Oh! I've got just the thing. Give me two minutes.”

“Colonel, give us five. Eli has an idea”, TJ said while Eli left the room.

Around three minutes later Colonel Young's voice could be heard again.

“Destiny _, this is Young. We're burning through suit air. What's goin' on with this great idea?”_

Just then Eli entered the room together with Sergeant Greer and they were both pushing what appeared to be a sled with a pile of ropes on it. But it didn't have any wheels instead it was  floating in mid air on its own. Elsa bent down a bit to look below the metal plate and noticed a couple of Kinos fastened to its bottom.

“Eli! This is amazing!”, Elsa exclaimed. She noticed the young men slightly blushing at this praise.

“Thanks. It should carry a ton of ice. Sadly one can't control all the Kinos at once with a remote.”

“We'll work on that in the future. Now get it off to Hoth.”

Eli grinned  as he noticed  that she had picked up the name he had given the planet and pushed the sled towards the Stargate together  with Greer .

“Colonel, we're sending through Eli's latest invention”, TJ said into the ship's communication system and a few seconds later the sled disappeared through the event horizon.

“ _I love it. The man gets a gold star.”_

“ _How much will it hold?”_ , Scott asked.

“Definitely more than you can carry by yourself”, Eli answered.

“ _All right, we're heading out. Keep the gate active. We'll radio back when we find something.”_ There was a short pause. _“TJ.”_

“Sir?”

“ _Listen, if we don't make it back...”_ Did he really think that he wouldn't make it back? Then why hadn't he taken up Elsa's offer? Sometimes human behavior was a real mystery to Elsa.

“You will.”

“ _Well, we're two guys in million-year-old spacesuits walking around alone on an ice planet. If we don't make it back, you're gonna do fine.”_

TJ gulped. “Yes, sir. Good luck.”

Since the two soldiers would likely take a while to reach the other side of the frozen lake and thus to stay in the gate room would be quite boring the gathered people slowly began to file out. Elsa decided that she'd go with Dr. Park back to the room with the spacesuits to get an update on them. Just in case she'd need to do something stupid.

* * *

Around an hour had passed since Colonel Young and Lieutenant Scott had left for the planet and Elsa had been back back in the Interface Control Room for twenty minutes or so. She had learned from Lisa Park that a third suit might be ready within a bit less than a day, but any more suits would take longer as they'd need to combine the good and useable parts of various of the remaining suits. Luckily they had been designed in a rather modular fashion so it was easy to do that. The hard part however was to find parts that were still salvageable. One of the suits had contained a working life-support system, another had still useable gloves, but the remaining parts were harder to find. So maybe they'd just have to do with three of the suits or maybe they would find replacement parts in one of the cargo holds.

Around ten minutes ago Colonel Young had informed them through the communication system that they had indeed found water ice in the form of a frozen waterfall.

And just now Tamara Johans e n entered the room. “I  just had a rather interesting... uhm... experience. ”

“Do tell”, Elsa encouraged.

“Well... I... uh... it's hard to describe. I went down one of the corridors and suddenly there was a... well... it appeared to be a cloud... of something that... uh... looked like bugs.” Elsa's eyes widened. They had alien lifeforms on the ship? How? Why didn't they discover them sooner?

“A cloud of bugs?”, Eli asked unconvinced. “So, are we talking about, like, one little cloud of bugs, or are they all over the ship?”, Eli asked with a nervous chuckle.

“I'm not ever sure that 'bugs' is the right word for them”, TJ said.

“Huh, what about 'cloud'?!”

“Except the cloud was alive. It was almost like thousands of tiny... alien creatures.” TJ shrugged helplessly.

“Yeah, I have a problem with everything you just said.”

“Eli, you need to keep an open mind. The teams on Earth and _Atlantis_ had found just as strange forms of life”, Elsa said.

“It's not necessarily the open mind that's the problem. It's just the thought that a swarm of tiny alien bugs is flying around the ship...”

“What you've just described is, uh, well, it's the same Lieutenant Scott claimed he saw on the desert planet”, Rush said.

“Oh, no one told me about that”, Elsa remarked.

“Back then we were thinking he had just imagined it, because of the dehydration. It seems that I had been wrong.” Elsa needed to mark this day in her calendar. It happened seldom enough that Rush admitted that he'd been wrong about something and now it had even happened on two consecutive days – at least if he really hadn't known about their power situation.

“I had thought of what Scott had seen as well”, TJ said. “Maybe they followed him back here.”

“Wouldn't we have noticed them?”, Eli asked.

“If only a few came with him through the gate then not”, Elsa explained. “And if they are indeed some kind of lifeform they might have started to reproduce.”

“Okay, so now, we've got aliens. What if they start bursting out of our stomachs?”, Eli wondered.

“I don't think they're dangerous. It almost felt like they were trying to communicate”, TJ remarked.

“Lieutenant Scott used the same word”, Rush added.

“You're in command, TJ, what do you suggest us to do?”, Elsa queried.

“Well, I guess we should stop everyone from wandering around the ship.”

“Be my guest then”, Elsa said and moved a bit away from her console to give the other woman a bit of space to access the ship wide communication system. They had discovered it the previous day when they were looking for a way to communicate with the shuttle.

“Um... here?”

“Yes.” Elsa pressed a button to activate the intercom.

“This is Lieutenant Johansen. We have a situation.” She paused a bit, seemingly collecting her thoughts. “It's under control, but as a precaution, I ask everyone to return to their quarters and remain there until further notice.” Another short pause. “Thank you.” She nodded briefly towards Elsa who took this as a hint to deactivate the intercom again.

“You're, uh, you're not going to tell them?”, Rush asked and Elsa wondered since when he cared for the well being of anyone else aboard.

“That we've got aliens?”, Eli exclaimed.

“No, we'll keep that on a need-to-know basis. What else?”

“You're in charge”, Rush said.

“And I'm asking for your advice”, TJ said firmly, looking from Rush to Elsa and back. “What else?”

“Always consider the greater good. That's it”, Rush provided.

“Nothing to add to that”, Elsa agreed.

 

* * *

Roughly an hour later Colonel Young had notified them that he and Lieutenant Scott were on their way back with a first shipment of ice and that they were already near the Stargate. Because of this Elsa, Rush and Eli were again in the gate room together with a group of military personnel that would store away the delivered ice. The two men on Hoth however didn't yet know what had been found on  _Destiny_ nor did they know that just after their announcement of bringing back the ice one of the soldiers aboard had been heavily wounded by these bugs TJ had seen. Were these beings really friendly or had the soldier done something that made them act in self defense? Maybe they felt threatened just like Elsa had when  the guards from Weselton had attacked her in her ice palace . Back then she had been ready to kill to defend herself and if it had not been for Hans' warning she might have.  She had sworn to herself afterwards that she'd not kill any people with her powers and till now she held true to it. She might have hurt and wounded people in the past 160 years, but she never killed them.

Just then the sled floated through the event horizon of the Stargate,  heavily loaded with ice. The gathered military personnel hauled the sled away from the gate and immediately began to  unload it by handing the pieces of ice from one person to the next. The gate meanwhile shut down.

“Dial it back, please”, Rush requested and Elsa was a bit surprised that he did indeed know the word 'please'. Not a minute later the gate was active again.

“Destiny _, this is Young. How's it going up there?”_

“Offloading the sled, now”, Rush reported.

“ _Well hurry it up. We want to do one more run.”_

“Just so you know, uh, another matter has come up. W-we have it under control.”

“We have aliens on the ship”, Eli threw in.

“Eli!”, Elsa scolded in a low voice so that the communication system would not pick it up – hopefully.

“ _What?”_

“They just shredded Gorman.” Elsa facepalmed. Okay, it wasn't that much of a need-to-know secret anymore with one of them having been wounded, but did Eli really have to bring the news in such a way?

“ _What the hell does that mean?”_

“Millions of tiny razor blades floating around the ship like piranha.”

“Corporal Gorman is alive”, Rush finally said. “Uh, Lieutenant Johansen is tending to him now.”

“He's probably not going to make it.”

“Eli!”, both Rush and Elsa scolded.

“ _That's it. We're coming back.”_

“No, no, no, that's not necessary Colonel. Eli is overreacting.” On the one hand Eli was surely overreacting or at least he did not have a good hand in bringing up news, but on the other hand those aliens did wound the Corporal. “We believe the creatures are the same as those Lieutenant Scott encountered on the desert planet. They must have followed us back through the gate.”

“ _No, I doubt those things I saw were dangerous, sir. They- they helped me”_ , Lieutenant Scott said.

“Corporal Gorman may have provoked them. We'll know more once he comes to.”

“ _If_ he comes to”, Eli added upon which Elsa sent Eli an angry glare not wanting to interrupt Rush who continued to talk over Eli.

“In the meantime, Lieutenant Johansen has ordered everyone to remain in their quarters. They're nothing more than a nuisance at this point, Colonel. But we desperately need more ice.”

For a few moments no answer came. Elsa wondered whether the Colonel thought about finally taking up her offer to produce ice. This way he and the Lieutenant would be able to come back to the ship and help with the aliens. Finally an answer came.

“ _All right. We'll figure out what to do with them when we get back.”_

During their talk the sled meanwhile had been fully unloaded and Sergeant Greer signaled to Dr. Rush that it could be sent back.

“Okay, sending the sled back through now. Rush out.”

Elsa waited till Greer had pushed the sled through the Stargate again and it had shut down before she spoke to Eli.

“What was that about, Eli?”, she asked sternly.

“You can't just... you can't just lie to the guy and expect me to...”, Eli defended.

“Once back into FTL, it can be days before we find another planet capable of replenishing our water reserves”, Rush commented. “This ice represents a fraction of what we need to stay alive. We need more!” Of course the amount of ice that had been gathered wasn't much, but it wasn't concerning Elsa that much anyway. She could always help out there. This was about how they interacted and worked together as a group.

“Yeah. I know!”, Eli said furious. “But that doesn't mean that you can just-”

“You could have told them differently... or not at all. Rush and me would have handled that! As an adult” _Or a queen_ , Elsa added in her thoughts. “One needs to know when to say something or not and more importantly how to say it.”

Eli merely sulked, but Rush looked at her thoughtfully and then gazed back at Eli.

“We need to figure this out”, he said and turned to leave the room, Elsa following after one or two seconds. Rush then stopped and looked back at Eli again. “I said _we_ ”, he commented softly and continued on his way. At first nothing happened, but then Eli seemed to have made up his mind and got up. The three of them left the gate room towards the Interface Control Room.

 

* * *

Although the next hour or so had been quite eventful regarding the bugs there wasn't much that Elsa could have  helped with . Sergeant Greer had presented a self made flamethrower – she wondered where he had gotten the components from and what kind of resource he used up with that –  and with the capability of the Kinos to record in a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum they  had found out  that it were the bugs that were straining their resources. So it was decided that they'd need to get them off the ship and a few minutes ago Greer had confirmed that he was able to direct the swarm into certain directions, likely because of his flamethrower. Not that Elsa liked the thought much that someone was threatening a mainly peaceful lifeform, but they didn't have much choice otherwise. And right now she was just a bystander idly playing around on her console.

“Destiny _, this is Young.”_ Everyone looked up in surprise. Were they done already with the ice? Elsa opened their side of the communication channel and nodded to TJ.

“Go ahead.”

“ _We've got a situation, here. There was a tremor, and Scott fell through the snow into a crevasse. He's fine, but he's just out of reach. I tried to pull him up, but that's not going to happen any time soon. How's that other space suit coming?”_ That was definitely not the kind of punishment she had in mind when she had said to Vanessa that she'd have a talk with Scott.

“W-we stopped work on that. I confined everyone to quarters.”

“ _All right, it was, uh... just a thought. We'll uh, we'll figure it out. How's your bug situation?”_

TJ took a deep breath while Eli looked down. Elsa wondered whether he'd say something again, but he kept silent. TJ then glanced at Rush who shook his head.

“Same as before, don't worry about it.” At that Eli jerked up and looked at the medic with an expression of betrayal. Elsa sighed mentally. She'd definitely have some work to with him once this is over.

“ _Don't you worry either, TJ”_ , Scott said. _“I'll be out of here in no time.”_

“Good luck. Johansen out.” TJ nodded towards Elsa who closed the communication channel again.

“Everyone is lying”, Eli said disappointed.

“That... that is necessary sometimes”, Elsa replied. “The world isn't always as simple as we'd like to have it.” But maybe it was time to end one other lie. She hesitated a bit. "Though I might have a solution for Lieutenant Scott's problem." The other three in the room jerked up on this.

"You do?", Eli asked.

"Yes... uhm..." How should she proceed? "Meet me in the gate room in five minutes." She ran out of the room and noticed remotely that three pairs of eyes looked at her with a puzzled expression.

* * *

It hadn't taken Elsa long to gather what she needed. First two dialing remotes and then that one working and filled life-support system Lisa Park had shown her earlier. To more easily carry the bulky device she had created suspenders out of ice and fastened them on parts of it that looked stable enough to be used as anchoring points. She then had run to the gate room and noticed with satisfaction that Rush, TJ and Eli were already there.

"What are you doing with the life-support system?", Eli asked as Elsa moved closer towards the gate.

"It won't protect you without the suit!", Rush exclaimed. "You will die as soon as you step through the gate. And you know that!"

"Elsa, it would be foolish to do that. If the thin and toxic atmosphere wouldn't be there'd still be the cold", Eli said and delivered precisely the opening she was hoping for.

"That is the point, Eli." She stretched out her arms sideways and called forth upon that eternal storm inside of her, that whirlwind of primal power that was capable of consuming her environment if she'd let it. She guided it around her body creating what the life-support system was missing. She had her eyes on the event horizon of the gate, but she knew that the eyes of everyone in the room widened, maybe the one or other jaw dropped as well. The process of creating a spacesuit out of ice wasn't as exhausting as the cog wheel two days ago, but then again there wasn't any lack of oxygen right now. Nevertheless it was important to guide the ice correctly as otherwise the suit wouldn't protect her from the toxic atmosphere. After only ten seconds the suit was nearly finished with one of the dialing remotes integrated into the inside of the chest plate and the other fastened onto her right forearm similar to how it was on the Ancient spacesuits – but on the other arm to take care of her left handedness. The only part that was still missing was the helmet, but she wanted to deliver one last line before she isolated herself from the environment. She turned around a bit to look at the three people standing at one of the consoles. As she has guessed their eyes were wide in surprise and at least Eli's jaw had dropped.

"The cold never bothered me anyway", she sang like she had done all those decades ago on the North Mountain and created the helmet with a visor of clear ice. Of course she took care during the process that her magic rearranged her braid in a bun as it would have been quite uncomfortable otherwise.

With a satisfied smirk she faced the Stargate again and stepped through.

* * *

It was one of the more harsh transitions Elsa had ever experienced when stepping through the gate. Not only did the temperature drop from around 20 degrees Celsius aboard _Destiny_ to minus 45, but the gravity was greatly reduced as well – the planet was probably only a bit larger than the moon – and the thin atmosphere provided nearly no resistance. And while the cold truly didn't bother her, she could still feel it as her suit wasn't as good in isolating her from the temperature as she had hoped. At least it was airtight and the life-support system on her back was working and providing her with oxygen. She checked the remote she had on her arm to know where Young and Scott were and went there in a comfortable sprint. At least there wasn't any blizzard this time around as had been on the video feed a few hours ago. Instead she was able to look at the clear, foreign night sky. There were thousands of unknown, unnamed stars visible and she wondered for a moment whether one could see the red dwarf from the previous day or the desert planet's sun from two days ago.

_"Colonel Young, this is_ Destiny _."_ Elsa heard TJ's voice through the remote integrated into her chest plate.

_"This is Young, what is it?"_

_"Uhm... Elsa is on her way to you."_

_"I though you said the third suit wasn't ready?"_

_"It isn't. She... uhm... has made her own. Out of ice."_

_"She... what?"_ It was Scott's voice, not Young's this time.

_"Understood"_ , Colonel Young said then. _"Do you know whether she can hear us?"_

Elsa willed her ice to press the button to activate two way communications on the remote in the chest plate.

"Yes I can, Colonel", she confirmed.

_"What the hell made you do this, Elsa, we had talked about this!"_

_"Wait, you knew?"_ , Eli asked.

There were a few seconds of pause until the Colonel admitted it. _"Yes, because I have been the leader of Icarus base. But back to you, Elsa: why?"_

"I was not going to just stand there and do nothing while I could have helped Scott!"

_"I hope that it's worth it."_

_"Are you kidding? She has ice powers! So. Totally. Worth. It"_ , Eli threw in, provoking a smile from Elsa.

_"Is there anything else we should know?"_ , Rush asked.

"I... uhm... I'll tell you later. There are probably a few more aboard _Destiny_ that want to hear my story." And if her suspicions were right this especially included Camile Wray.

* * *

Elsa was walking quite fast for around fifteen minutes when she had reached the area Colonel Young and Lieutenant Scott were located at. She could see Young sitting next to a crevasse from which a rope led to pile behind him.

"So. Here I am." Carefully she looked into the crevasse and sure enough she could see the headlights of Scott's spacesuit down there.

“ _Ice of you to snow up”_ , Lieutenant Scott commented dryly.

“Wait... did you just make ice puns? I hope you won't keep doing that”, Elsa remarked.

Colonel Young looked up and his eyes widened when he saw her. Just like the others on _Destiny_ he had never seen her powers in action and here she was, standing in front of him in a spacesuit made of ice.

_"I have to admit that this spacesuit of yours looks pretty neat."_

"Thank you. So, Scott is stuck down there?"

_"Yes, that's correct. I tried to pull him out, but he didn't move an inch."_

"Okay, uhm... ah, I know. Scott, I will create a platform of ice for you to stand on, understood?"

“ _Yes, I'm ready. I hope.”_

She flicked her wrists a bit and an ice platform appeared just a bit below the Lieutenant. It slowly ascended towards him until finally his feet were on solid ground again.

“ _Okay, I'm standing. Now what?”_

“I will now dissolve the ice that holds you.”

Dissolving that ice however went slower than she had expected, maybe because it wasn't pure water ice, but saturated with all kind of other chemicals that made it less willing for her. Nevertheless she managed and soon enough she could see that Lieutenant Scott was balancing himself albeit a bit unstable perhaps.

“Time to put on the seat-belts”, Elsa joked and created a ring of ice around the Lieutenant's waist that was fixed to the ground by rods of ice. “I'll now ascend the platform.” Slowly Elsa elevated the platform and once it was on the same level as the remaining surface she completely closed of the crevasse. “Ground floor, small gimmicks, checkout and main exit”, she joked.

_"Thank you"_ , Scott said and turned around in his ring of ice to look at Colonel Young and her. _"Woah!"_

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Impressive”, she declined. “Let's just get back to the ship." She looked at the sled that was loaded with ice again. It wasn't that much. Maybe she'd need to add a bit herself later on. She turned back towards Scott and dissolved the ring of ice that had supported him during the ascension. Instead of keeping upright however the man collapsed onto the icy ground. Elsa and Young were beside him right away.

"Is everything alright?"

_"It seems my legs got injured a bit down there."_

_"Then we'll carry you on the sled."_

_"But what about the ice?"_

"Eli had said that it can carry at least a ton and I'm quite sure there's much less on it. And you definitely don't way that much", Elsa said with a smirk.

_"How fortunate for me"_ ,  Scott deadpanned. 

* * *

The way back to the gate was around ten minutes longer since they weren't walking as fast as Elsa had especially since Colonel Young was still limping enough to slow them down. Elsa was carrying the cases with the plasma cutter and the measurement equipment while the Colonel was pushing the Kino sled with the ice, the rope and Lieutenant Scott on top of it. Just as they arrived at the gate it spun a bit and activated.

_"_ Destiny _, this is Young. Would be nice if you'd shutdown again so we can dial from our end."_

_"Please stay back from the gate. We send something through which we hope does not return"_ , TJ explained and a few seconds later a container floated out of the event horizon. It was a cylinder made out of metal roughly one meter across and one and a half high with a narrowing top closed off by a round lid of thirty centimeters or so. Slowly the container descended to the ground, rotating sideways as it did. As soon as it had reached the surface something inside of the container started to stir. Elsa and Colonel Young jerked back a bit. Whatever it was it dented different sides of the cylinder till it reached the lid which was pointing away from both the humans and the gate. After two dents at the lid a hole appeared in it and a swarm of tiny... well... bugs appeared. Elsa had never seen these bugs herself so she was quite mesmerized by them. They collected themselves above the container and soon after they flew into the direction of Elsa and the others. Since she knew that they liked to consume water she hoped that they wouldn't consider her icesuit as a viable snack especially with all that other possible sources of food around them. Indeed they largely ignored her and instead collected themselves above Lieutenant Scott. A smile appeared on his face as he seemingly recognized them. And just then the bugs formed a face themselves that even resembled Scott's. As fast as it had appeared it vanished again however and the bugs flew off to another part of the planet.

"It seems those bugs were at least intelligent enough for doing imitation", Elsa commented amazed, incidentally noticing that the gate had already shutdown again. She reached for her remote and selected Destiny's address. "Redialing now."

Not much later the gate was active again. " _Destiny_ , this is Elsa. The bugs have flown off."

_"_ _Understood_ _"_ , TJ responded.

"Should we bring the container with us? It is rather dented and the lid is destroyed, but maybe we could use its parts."

_"Yes, please, we shouldn't waste anything"_ , Rush said.

"Will do." She turned to Scott and placed the two boxes she had carried on him. "Here, hold this till we are on the other side." She went towards the gate and picked up the container. It didn't feel as heavy as it looked, but likely she'd need to drop it immediately back on the ship because of the stronger gravity. She adjusted her grip to nevertheless hold onto it as firmly as possible. Preparing herself as much as possible for the change in environmental conditions she stepped through the event horizon.

* * *

Back on _Destiny_ Elsa managed at least to hold the container long enough to get out of the way of the Colonel with the sled. With a loud sound the container met the floor and Elsa turned around to welcome the other two who just then came through the gate as well. Immediately TJ jumped forward from her place at the consoles to tend to the injured Lieutenant while the gate shut down again, venting steam out of the ground next to it.

"Help me get him down from there", she commanded two soldiers who stood nearby likely to transport the ice.

Elsa meanwhile dissolved her icesuit with a flick of her wrist, quickly catching the two dialing remotes before they could fall to the floor like the container had. She still kept the life-support strapped to her back since it was easier to transport this way.

"Wow", was all that Eli could say.

"So... Would you mind explaining yourself?", Rush asked her bluntly.

"Not here. Uhm... meet me in the mess hall in an hour. Everyone who wants to hear my story is invited to join in.” She thought a bit, then looked at the sled. “But before that I need to take care of a few pieces of ice." Elsa smiled and flicked a wrist again and the pieces of ice that Lieutenant Scott had laid on started to float. Slowly she walked out of the gate room with the blocks following behind her like ducklings, leaving behind a couple of dumbfounded people.

 

* * *

The hour had passed  faster  than Elsa would have liked. She had placed the ice blocks inside the water tank just like the previous shipment had been. For now she had however decided against creating ice on her own as she first wanted the crew's consent for this.  She then had stored away the life-support system and spent m ost of the remaining time in her quarters preparing herself for the upcoming talk. It wasn't the first time she did this and considering her life expectancy it wouldn't be her last either, but each time was different and each time the way people  had  treated her  before the revelation  had changed. And just as well she asked herself every time why she longed for the acceptance of other people so much when she  indeed enjoyed to stay by herself. A quick look at her pocket watch had told her that the time was nearly up and she had gone to the mess hall where a few people waited outside. Among them was Camile Wray who eyed her suspiciously.

“I knew something was going on with you.”

“I bet though that you hadn't expected this”, Elsa said with a weak smile and created a few snowflakes above her open hand. Wray hadn't been there when Elsa went to Hoth or when she had come back, so she noticed with a bit of satisfaction how the other woman's eyes widened in surprise as did the eyes of those few near them that had witnessed her little trick. But then she noticed something else in Wray's eyes. She would have thought it would be satisfaction or maybe a hint of fear, but what she saw was childlike curiosity. Maybe she had misjudged the woman? But as soon as the emotion had appeared, it was gone again and the woman was back to her stoic self.

“Yes, that wasn't on my list of things”, Wray commented dryly and walked into the mess hall. Elsa sighed and followed.

As it appeared rumors spread fast on a little crew like theirs as the room was packed full with people. Every single bench was used, even a few tables and every place where one could stand between them. Only the entry area was kept free and so Elsa decided to stay there. She waited for the remaining people who had been outside of the room to come in and then let her gaze wander along the crowd in front of her which was  busy with murmuring and talking. She saw Colonel Young, TJ and Sergeant Greer sitting  at one table,  Rush,  Chloe and  Eli  at another  with a Kino floating next to the young man  and Lisa Park and Adam Brody  at a third. Camile Wray stood somewhere on the side since she had entered too late to  secure a seating place for herself.  Vanessa James stood in another part of the room. Lieutenant  Scott was  absent however, but  considering his injury he  likely  was  in the infirmary. A few of the people noticed her presence, but the most still kept talking. So she righted herself and breathed in.

“May I have your attention, please”, she said loud enough in the most authoritative voice possible, a voice Anna used to call Elsa's queen voice. Soon enough all chatting died down and she had all eyes fixed on her. “Thank you”, she continued much softer. “So I think we all know why we've gathered here: there's a freak in town and everyone wants to know what's the matter.” Her try at lightening the atmosphere didn't work however as well as she had hoped. She shrugged. “So... uhm... you might have heard about what had happened in the gate room earlier, that I created a spacesuit out of ice, went to the planet to save the day and then had a herd of ice blocks follow me to the water reservoir.” She paused and looked into a few of the faces in front of her. Some showed recognition, especially of those people that had indeed witnessed it, some showed doubt, others tried to keep a neutral expression and a few even smirked upon her choice of words. “It's true.” She created a small whirlwind of snow above her right hand and immediately the people began to chat among each other again. “People, please!” Elsa had used her queen voice again and it didn't take long for the chatter to die down again. “You're probably asking yourself how I came to the possession of such power. To put it bluntly: I was born with it. As for the why... well... an analysis by scientists of Stargate Command revealed that I have an unusual high amount of Ancient DNA, higher than any other human known on Earth or most other planets. In fact I'm even more Ancient than human and with that come certain side effects, my powers being only one of them.” She paused a bit. “Some of you might have wondered during the last few days why I look so young.” Elsa glanced at Lisa Park and then at TJ who both blushed a bit. “It's because my genetic makeup grants me eternal youth and for all practical purposes immortality. How I know this? Well... my official file says that I was born on 17th July 1967, in truth however I was born on 17th July of the year 1826 which makes me 183 years old.” There it was, the truth was finally out and on the one hand she was relieved, but she dreaded what the near future might bring. Of course the crowd started to talk again. Slowly Elsa looked along the crowd again. The most interesting expression she noticed was that of Eli. If she guessed it correctly – and nearly two centuries had taught her well in that regard – he looked satisfied that he finally knew her age and maybe he related it to what she had said to him the day before when he recorded her memorial message. As it was however it was time for another usage of her queen voice. “Silence!” She still doubted it sometimes, but in fact crowd control was really her strong suit. The prove was right in front of her as the people had quieted down again. “I'll tell you a bit more about myself to give you a bigger picture though I won't go into too many details. I was born as Princess Elsa Agdarsdatter, heir apparent to the throne of Arendelle.” At this quite a few jaws dropped. She was especially satisfied by the bewildered look of Camile Wray.

“Wait, you're a princess?”, Eli queried.

“I _was_ a princess back then, together with my younger sister. However because of my powers my childhood and adolescence wasn't easy and when I was eighteen our parents were lost at sea. Three years later I was to be crowned Queen of Arendelle, but managed to freeze the land.”

“So that's how you manage that authority part so well”, Eli smirked, but Elsa decided to ignore him.

“Thanks to my sister however all went well and we lived happily ever after. Well... at least until she died because of pneumonia.” Even though her sister had ascended it still had left a void in her that would likely never be filled again. “Since then I travelled the world and tried to learn as much as possible, not that I hadn't before that, mind you. I had many cover identities, conferred with many historical persons, witnessed both world wars and joined the _Atlantis_ expedition back in 2005. I blew my cover in 2008 and Stargate Command provided me with my current  identity based on my real name and birthday. And now I'm here with all of you.” Of course this was all heavily simplified, but for now it would be sufficient. “Before I open the discussion for questions I have one request to make.” Elsa looked at the gathered people again who awaited what the blonde's request might be. “I'd like the knowledge of my powers to stay on this ship. So if you should talk with someone on Earth through the stones or with someone from Earth who visits us, please don't what I'm capable of. Okay?” It was one thing to reveal her secret to those people she had close contact with, but it was an entirely different topic if the secret would spread like wildfire on Earth. There was murmuring again amongst the crowd, but in the end they all seemed to agree. “Alright. Are there any questions? And _please_ use hand signs!” Immediately quite some hands went up. Randomly Elsa pointed at one of the women near Lisa Park.

“I've never heard of this Arendelle”, the woman said.

“I have!”, Chloe spoke up and then blushed a bit. “I had read about during my studies. It was a small kingdom in southern Norway which is nowadays known as Arendal and is a part of Norway. There even is a legend about an ice queen.” She turned to look at Elsa with wide eyes. “Wait a second, that's about you, right?!”

Elsa nodded, she knew which legend the young woman had meant. “Yes, that legend is about me:  _In_ _Arendelle's fair kingdom_ _a ruler did appear,_ _born_ _with_ _a magic power so great, alone she stayed in fear._ _Although the force was hidden, o_ _ne day she let it go, and_ _all_ _the land_ _was covered_ _in eternal ice and snow._ ” 

Again the hands went up and Elsa picked another one. This time a man on the other side of the room. “Do your powers have any limits?”

“Well... there are limits, especially when I'm exhausted, but those limits continue to grow farther away the older I get. To give you an example: on my coronation day I ran away into the mountains and build myself an ice castle.” For demonstration purposes she created a miniature version of the peak of the North Mountain with her ice palace on it leading to quite some gasps among the crowd. She hesitated though whether she should reveal what her powers could do as well. It might come in handy though in the future so she decided to go for it. “And I can create sentient life.” At this the room went completely quiet, so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. It was quite an eerie silence though. “I... uhm... I'm not using that possibility that much though.” At least not willingly. It was a different story if she had one of her really seldom colds and was creating snowgies with each of her sneezes. Those days had always been the biggest threats for her cover identities. Again the hands went up and she picked another man.

“What about your sister? Is she Ancient, too?”

“As far as I know she was completely ordinary. She aged normally, so while she might have had enough Ancient DNA to activate Ancient devices she didn't have enough to develop powers or longevity.” Briefly Elsa wondered how her life would have been if Anna would indeed have been immortal as well or even would have had powers like her.

 

* * *

The questioning went on for quite some time and Elsa had answered as truthfully as she could. After around one and a half hours the crew had run out of questions and in addition everyone grew more and more tired so Elsa had decided that story time was over.  As everyone left the mess hall she took her time to take in everyone's expression. At least openly no one seemed to  be opposed to her which was at least something. When passing her some smiled at her kindly or even wished her good night, that included also Camile Wray. Elsa had been especially worried about the opinions of those people she considered her friends: Eli, TJ, Chloe, Lisa, perhaps Brody and after today's talk maybe also Vanessa James. However they all regarded her with acknowledgments, open smiles and good night wishes. Even Rush had  a few kind words to spare , especially about her Ancient heritage of course.  Only time would tell though what everyone thought of her.  There was however one other person she had to deal with before she could go to bed. She didn't want to delay that any further.

Slowly she entered the dimly lit infirmary. There was no sign of TJ and only a reading light at one of the beds was turned on. On the bed itself lay Lieutenant Scott, reading a book. Elsa cleared her throat and the young soldier  lowered the book a bit  to look at his visitor .

“Ah, Elsa, I hadn't expected you. That was an interesting talk you gave.”

“How-”, she began, but Scott merely picked up a dialing remote that was lying on a bed table and waved it a bit. “The Kino, of course!”

“So, what can I do for you at this late hour?”, he asked with a smile.

“I had a talk with Vanessa James today.” His smile faltered and Elsa continued in an emotionless voice. “She told me that you two had something going on back on Icarus base. She also told me that you didn't break up with her before you went on to see Chloe.”

“I-I don't see how this concerns you.” He hadn't expected though that Elsa would be right next to him immediately, grasping him by the shirt and lifting it from the bed a bit. Honestly this had surprised Elsa herself a bit. She wasn't as weak anymore as after her coronation, Anna had made sure of that, but the aggressiveness with which she was holding him was somewhat concerning. Nevertheless she decided to go through with it for now. Maybe she would get her point across easier this way.

“Now listen to me closely, Matthew Scott. Women are not your playthings, to be tossed aside when you've grown bored of them.” She let drop the temperature around them until she could see the air Scott was breathing out. To his defense he kept his calm – at least on the surface – and looked straight into her eyes. There she noticed his fear however. “If you should hurt any woman on this ship like that ever again, I _will_ find you and I _will_ ensure that you won't be able to do that ever again. Savvy?” Quickly he nodded and Elsa dropped him back onto the  bed. “Good.” Slowly she raised the temperature again and turned to leave. Then she remembered something and turned her head to look at him again. “Oh, and you will go and talk to Vanessa as soon as you're able to, yes?” He nodded again not letting her out of his view. “Have a good night then”, she said with a smile and left the room. Hopefully she wouldn't need to do such a display ever again. She wondered however what had gotten into her, it had been truly uncanny to say the least.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Elsa's powers are known to the crew by now (and yes, I did use the narrative of one of the trailers :P ). Before I had started the story I had imagined this episode to be the one in which her powers are revealed and the scene with Elsa creating the ice suit in front of the gate was in my head for quite some time. I do agree however with A Mountain Sage that it would also have been interesting to have her powers completely hidden and she'd have to struggle to keep that way. Maybe - or rather likely - I'll write a few flashbacks in the future that show Elsa having these exact problems on Atlantis. Or a prequel story where I pick a few SGA episodes... (I'm not insane enough to do the complete series of SGA :P )
> 
> @Piero217: I hope you aren't disappointed that it wasn't Wray who revealed Elsa's powers. If it wouldn't have been "Water" then it would have been a 'race' between Wray and Brody. Though maybe Elsa could have convinced Brody to keep it a secret...
> 
> That Elsa is basically Ancient is also a headcanon I had for quite some time. Since we don't know the cause of her powers (leaving aside word of god with that planetary alignment thingie) I thought that this would fit quite well with the Stargateverse. :) Of course we mostly saw the Ancients doing crazy stuff when they had ascended, but maybe they had evolved already to a stage 10,000 years ago were a few mutations were enough to have them doing such stuff as mortals as well (in this case Elsa's ice powers and her longevity).
> 
> I've picked Elsa's date of birth on purpose. Though not necessarily in-universe. The 17th July was the first day that Disneyland had opened and it was also the day an American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft had docked with each other. I thought that both events are a nice fit for this story. :) Why am I not going with the semi-canon date of the winter solstice? Two sentences from Frozen: "The Queen has come of age." (which historically is normally a synonym for birthday) and "A real howler in July, ja?!"  
> Choosing 1826 as Elsa's year of birth makes Anna born in 1829 (here I'll take the 21st June) and the events of Frozen thus occurred in 1847.
> 
> For the next chapter I'm currently planning two to three weeks, because I'm working on another unrelated Frozen fic for a writing prompt. :)


	8. Effect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am again, a bit late and also not with 'Earth' as most of you expected. I originally wanted this chapter to be part of 'Earth', but then it took a bit of a life of it's own. It's the shortest chapter so far (aside from the prologue), but completely original. :)
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

A bunch of people were already seated in the mess hall when Elsa entered it. This time she had gotten up earlier – around nine o'clock in Universal Time Coordinated – in the hope to start a more or less regulated day. The night hadn't been peaceful for her however as her surprisingly aggressive behavior towards Lieutenant Scott had bothered her as did the possible reactions of the crew regarding her powers especially after they had a night of sleep. She had mostly ignored the people she met on her way towards the mess hall – aside from polite greetings – but she dreaded more to enter the mess hall anyway. But there was literally no way around it as it was the only room where breakfast was served. Albeit breakfast consisted of the same tasteless, watered down protein powder as lunch and dinner. Hopefully they'd find some tea or coffee substitute on one of the planets _Destiny_ comes up with or as parts of the seeds they'd brought with them from Icarus base or maybe as part of the seeds that were stored in the ship's holds.

These thoughts didn't help Elsa in any way however as she noticed that the people in the mess hall looked at her warily. So the night hadn't helped her case. Mentally she sighed. It wasn't entirely unexpected, she just had hoped that on _Destiny_ it would be different.

Straightening herself a bit she walked over to the water column where Airman Becker was distributing the rations. Did the man ever sleep?

“Good morning, Airman”, Elsa greeted with a sincere if unsure smile once she was close enough.

“Good morning, Elsa. One ration coming up.” As always during the last few days he carefully measured both the protein powder and the water and mixed them in one of the Ancient bowls. Once he was happy with the mixture he held out the bowl for her to take. “Uhm... one little question if I may?”

“Uh... sure. What's on your mind?” Again she was smiling at him. It was better to show the people a positive image of her, that she wasn't something entirely foreign, but – more or less – a human being as well and that they should treat her just like that.

“Would it be possible to turn the protein powder to ice cream?”

“Wait, what?” Did he just really ask her about a try to improve that tasteless stuff by turning it into ice cream?

“I'm looking for ways to improve our eating experience and after your revelation yesterday I thought that it was worth a try to add ice cream to the mix – pun intended.” At least it wasn't an offensive question and one she could answer easily as she had used her powers quite often already to create ice cream, either based on water or on milk. It had been hard at first – quite literally – but once she had managed it one time it had been quite easy to reproduce as was usual with her powers.

“I don't think it will really help, but it's worth a try.” She flicked a wrist at the bowl that Becker was still holding for her and within a moment the mixture had turned into a small pile of white ice cream. “Wanna test?”

The soldier looked at her with wide eyes. Probably he hadn't expected her to do this right away. “I... uhm... it's your ration.”

“A spoon full won't hurt.”

“Okay, if you insist.” He grabbed a spoon from the table behind him, scooped up a bit of the ice cream and guided it to his mouth. However he stopped shortly before he ate it. “You sure this is save?”

She sighed. “It's not the first ice cream I've made and so far everyone has survived. As long as the ingredients are good the ice cream is also.”

He shrugged and then ate the ice cream. Elsa could only assume that the man was carefully probing the substance now with his tongue as she could see his cheeks moving a bit. He then looked up to the ceiling as if the answers to his questions were written there. After a few more moments he finally swallowed whatever of the ice cream might have been left in his mouth.

“Nope, you're right, not helping at all. Thanks for letting me try that idea.”

“You're welcome”, Elsa responded and finally got hold of the bowl. “And thank you for preparing the rations.” Becker merely nodded and Elsa turned around to look for a suitable table. Quite a few of the gathered people must have been looking at her as she noticed them quickly turning back to their bowls or conversational partner. To her delight she also noticed Eli who was already waving at her with a smile on his face. At least one person on this forsaken ship openly sided with her.

“Good morning, Elsa!”, Eli exclaimed once the blonde had reached his table. She noticed an empty bowl in front of him as well as a dialing remote he seemed to watch some of his Kino recordings on.

“Good morning, Eli. Mind if I join?”

“Of course I don't mind. I wouldn't have waved you over otherwise.”

Elsa placed her bowl on the table and sat down on the bench next to it.

“So... ice cream, huh?”, Eli asked, pointing at her bowl with the white, icy substance.

“Yeah... ice cream for breakfast... oh joy”, Elsa commented dryly. She now regretted that she had complied with Airman Becker's request. “Even your generation's junk food would be better than this right now.”

“You know, I really could use a coke”, Eli said, his eyes unfocused as if he was daydreaming, which he probably was. Then he chuckled. “To think that I used to drink around five cans a day.”

“Five cans?”, Elsa asked impressed then she smirked. “That explains your build.”

“Oh come on, this is carefully cultivated isolation material”, the young man pouted while patting his belly.

“Sure it is... did you ever have to suffer through a real coldness?”

“I... uhm... no”, he admitted sheepishly.

“I could make you. Let me ice one of the empty rooms for you and we'll see what your 'carefully cultivated isolation material' will help you.” Elsa tried as hard as possible to keep a poker face.

Eli gulped. “You wouldn't, would you?”

“Wanna bet?”, Elsa smirked. Of course she wouldn't hurt Eli out of all people. Though maybe a snowball fight or something similar might be quite entertaining. As gracefully as she could she scooped up a bit of the ice cream in her bowl and ate it. However it turned out that it was much harder to keep up the appearance of gracefulness with that absolutely crude ice cream in her mouth.  

* * *

After breakfast both Eli and Elsa had gone to the Control Interface Room. Rush was already there and after a few greetings the two newcomers went to work as well. At least Rush seemed not to treat Elsa any different than he had before her revelation. That is aside from his curious stares that Elsa noticed after a few minutes. She moaned and looked at him.

“If there is something on your mind, Dr. Rush, then feel free to ask, but stop with that staring, please!”

“I... uhm...” He cleared his throat. Likely he hadn't expected her to snarl at him as much as she had. “Your stay on _Atlantis_ , was it any different for you with being mostly an Ancient?”

She knew exactly what he was hinting at. “I'll take it you know that _Atlantis_ reacted to the presence of those of the expedition that had the Ancient activation gene?” She paused to wait for Rush's nod and noticed that Eli was also looking at her with curiosity. “Colonel Shepperd was the one of our team aside from me with the highest concentration of Ancient DNA and he didn't report anything strange. But for me... it always felt as if the city was reaching out for me. Mentally. It- it wasn't much, but sometimes during extreme stressful situations it seemed as if I was able to give _Atlantis_ commands telepathically. We never could prove anything in tests however, so I don't know whether it was merely my imagination or whether the Ancients had equipped the city with an AI that could communicate with them through telepathy.”

“Woah, that is wicked!”, Eli exclaimed. “The Ancients truly were something!”

“Yeah, don't forget that they are millions of years ahead of us. _Atlantis_ itself is at least ten million years old and vastly superior to _Destiny_ except for her capability to fly through stars to charge herself. The city ship might survive such a flight, but she won't gain anything from that.” Eli whistled impressed and Elsa turned back to Rush. “Was that answer satisfying?”

“Yes, yes, indeed”, the scientist mumbled and turned back to his console. Obviously there wouldn't be any more questions for now. Though Elsa had the feeling that aside from secretary she'd also have to fill the role of an Ancient dictionary. No, if it should come to that she'll make clear how he should treat her. For now however she'd let that slip.

Some minutes later Elsa got all excited however because she had found something.

“Guys, I found out why we don't have access to some systems!”, she exclaimed and immediately gained the attention of Eli and Rush.

“Do tell!”, Eli said.

“We are locked out by some sort of master code. It protects all the main systems that we weren't yet able to get access to. Mainly propulsion and navigation.”

“Is there any hint what this code might look like?”, Rush asked.

“Not yet, but at least we now know what we should look for. So the haystack to search our needle in got vastly smaller”, Elsa explained with a smile.

“Good job”, Rush said and went back to his console. Elsa however was so stunned by this amount of praise from the scientist that it took a nudge from Eli to get her back to work.

Around an hour more had passed when the radios in the room came to life.

“ _Brody to Elsa.”_

Elsa immediately reached for her own radio and keyed it. “Hello Brody, how can I help you?”

“ _I'm finished with the elevator to the cargo hold. Would you like to join me there to look at the crane?”_

The blonde inhaled sharply and got curious glances by the other two men in the room. She hadn't yet told the engineer that she had repaired the crane by herself. She definitely had to rectify this lie. “I'll be there in a moment. Elsa out.” She put the radio back into her pockets and looked at Rush. “Please excuse me for a while.” The scientist nodded and Elsa left the room.

* * *

It hadn't taken Elsa long to reach the elevator which would take her to the cargo hold and Dr. Brody was waiting in front of it. With a proud smile he reached for one of the buttons outside the elevator and the door slid open. Elsa hadn't yet used one of the elevators in the ship, so overwhelmed by curiosity she stepped in and looked around. Similar to most elevators on Earth it was rather bland with gray, featureless walls except for near the door where a control panel with light blue illuminated buttons was located. The door was a bit more than a meter wide and the depth of the elevator was a bit more than three meters. That meant in essence that they'd by able to get the large boxes that were three base units long from the cargo hold into the elevator. At least if they managed to maneuver such a box out of the hold. Or maybe they'd need to transport the contents by hand? In that case it would be a better idea to bring Eli's Kino sled with them. Though for now they probably wouldn't need too large objects anyway.

Meanwhile Brody had entered the elevator cab as well and pressed a few buttons. The door slid shut and she felt that the cab started to move.

“The control is rather simple”, Brody began to explain once they were moving. “You enter the destination address and press this button”, Brody pointed at a button at the bottom right of the controls, “and the elevator will take you there if it can reach the address. It even tries to takes you as near as possible if you don't enter an address with direct access to the elevator shaft.”

“And what about the addresses?”, Elsa asked him, cocking her head.

“They appear to be a combination of deck number and section of the area. They are mentioned everywhere in the ship's schematics.”

“Ah, yes, I've seen those numbers. I had already assumed that they'd be some kind of numeric room designation.”

The elevator stopped and the door opened again, revealing the corridor near the cargo hold.

“Then let's get that crane fixed!” Brody flashed her a smile and left the elevator. Elsa sighed. It was now or never.

“Brody, wait.” Brody turned around while Elsa left the elevator as well, nervously playing with the fabric of her shirt. She had no idea how he would react, but it really bothered her that he might react negatively. She considered him a friend and she wouldn't like to see a strain in this young friendship. “I, uhm, I have to admit something.” She tried to look him in the eyes, but couldn't. 160 years and she still hadn't managed to be fully self-confident. She noticed Brody looking at her expectantly. “When, uh, when you left me the other day I hadn't picked the boxes by hand. Uhm, I had fixed the crane myself by creating a cog wheel of ice.”

“You what?!”, Brody shouted and Elsa cringed because of this sudden flash of anger, remotely registering a few snowflakes appearing around them. The engineer continued in a disappointed whisper. “You lied to me?!”

“What should I have done?! I was supposed to keep my powers a secret! But I needed to get to this stuff for the scrubbers!”, Elsa cried. It had been a while since someone had accused her with such disappointment written in their face. “I'm sorry, okay.”

“Since you seem to hold yourself just fine, you can work in the hold yourself”, he spat and stormed past her into the elevator. He pressed the controls and the door closed, leaving Elsa all to herself.

It took her a moment to really register what had just happened before she slammed her fist into the wall next to her in frustration. Had that been really necessary? Couldn't that have gone less agonizing? How had she even dared to hope that things would go better this time? Why was she still so naïve after all these decades? Slowly she let herself slide down along the wall, clenching her knees once she had reached the ground and began to sob.

* * *

It really hurt Anna to her core to see her sister in such a devastated state. Even after one and a half centuries she still had these attacks. Likely this was a wound that would never really heal. Anna had materialized in front of her sister and crouched down.

“Hey”, she whispered, in the hope she'd not surprise the other woman.

“Before you ask, no I'm not alright”, Elsa said intermingled with sobs without looking up.

“I know. The snowflakes around you are a good giveaway for that.” A sound emanated from the blonde that sounded like a strange mixture of a laugh and a sob. Though it also reminded her of the grunting of an orc in one of those video games Elsa had shown her. “I really doubt that this has ruined your friendship with Brody forever. He'll probably brood about it for a while and then you two will be good again.” Another grunt followed and finally Elsa looked at her.

“And what about everyone else? I've seen how they looked at me this morning. So appraising, so judging, so... leery.”

“So what? You have friends, remember? Eli didn't judge you at all. And Rush... well... he's not really your friend, but at least he doesn't treat you much different than before. Maybe even a bit better now that he knows that you are mainly a precious Ancient.”

Elsa snorted. “Yeah, sounds about right.” Then she looked sadly at the elevator door. “But I haven't talked with Lisa yet, or TJ, or Chloe.”

“Oh, come on Elsa, let it go!”

“Where?!”, Elsa exclaimed. “This is a spaceship. I can't go on top of the superstructure and build an ice palace there.” It took a few moments, but then both women burst into laughter. Anna just tried to imagine Elsa jumping around in a space suit on top of the ship and creating a replica of her ice palace there. Yes, that was a sight to behold. But that got her an idea.

“What if you, I don't know, had a place where you could use your powers? To let off steam?”

Elsa shook her head. “No, I don't know a room where I could do this without damaging the ship. I don't know enough about its structure to know where essential conduits are running.”

Anna hoped that she'd not overstep the line with this. “But I do.” She paused, waiting for any reaction of her fellow Ancients, but nothing came. Mentally she exhaled the breath she didn't have to hold anyway. “There is an empty room a deck below us that has no critical systems in its proximity.”

Her sister seemed to be in thought about this, but then she sighed. “Okay, show me.” Instinctively this led to Anna showing her widest smile.

* * *

It hadn't taken Anna and Elsa long to reach the room – after Elsa had vanished the snow at her previous location of course. Elsa reached for the button on the control panel and as expected the heavy bulkhead door slid apart, revealing an indeed empty room without any windows that Elsa might break by accident. Slowly nodding she agreed to Anna's choice.

“You were right. This room seems perfect.”

“Of course I was right. I know what is best for you on this ship”, Anna boasted, but Elsa merely rolled her eyes. “What? Don't you think I do?”

“It's not that. It's just that you're right now ruffling your feathers like a peacock during mating season.”

That immediately got Anna to pout. “But.... but I have no feathers...”

Elsa smirked. “Now come on. In or out?” Only now Anna noticed that she was still standing outside of the room she had picked for her older sister. Playfully she jumped over the threshold. “Thought so.” Elsa reached for the door control which closed directly behind Anna. “It's probably best I shield the door and the door control just in case.” Anna took that as a cue to step away from the door and soon enough the door and the door control were both encased in ice.

“So... now what?”, Anna asked. She knew that it's the first time since months that Elsa had a room for herself where she could use her powers without disturbing anyone or anything.

“See for yourself”, Elsa smirked and closed her eyes. She lifted her right foot and immediately dropped it again, encasing the whole room in a layer of ice. The blonde then began to create and dissolve ice spikes all around her while at the same time dancing around the room without hitting either the walls or the ice spikes despite her closed eyes. Anna knew of course that Elsa was able to sense her ice. It was something she had learned to do a while after the Great Thaw. And the movements the blonde was doing resembled an amalgamation of various dancing styles from around the world and throughout the decades. The times when Elsa had said that she didn't dance were long gone already and in Anna's eyes Elsa had become the most experienced dancer the world, no the universe had ever seen. Throwing in the ice powers that the woman used only added to that. Looking at her sister Anna saw a smile on Elsa's face and the younger of the two felt relieved right away. She hadn't seen her sister this relaxed in a long time and it was a sight to behold.

* * *

Elsa was walking along _Destiny_ 's corridors towards Colonel Young's office. He had summoned her just now, around three quarters of an hour after she had arrived in the control room from her breakfast. She didn't know however what he wanted from her. Was it because she had spent a greater part of the previous day in the room Anna had shown her? She was really grateful that her sister had done that as she really needed such a room to relax with all the problems that were going on aboard the ship. She hadn't talked with Brody yet, but she wanted to give him time to cool down and then she'd approach him again.

Finally Elsa had reached the closed door of Young's office. Instead of knocking she used the door control panel to announce her presence. She had played around with the door control panel of her own room's door and now had a fairly good understanding of its workings. There was a kind of chime that one could use to announce oneself, then a two way speaker to talk with whoever was on the other side of the door. Also the door could be locked from each side to prevent the other from opening it and one could use a code to lock the door from the same side. Basically the doors had every feature one would expect of them. Probably they even had emergency unlocks somewhere, but she had yet to find these.

It had taken a few seconds, but finally the door in front of her opened to reveal the rather confused face of Colonel Young.

“Oh, Elsa, welcome. Was that strange sound your doing?” So she likely was one of the first who had played around with the door control that much.

“Yes, Colonel. It's the door's chime. If you want I can show you later how it works”, Elsa replied with a smile.

“I'll come back to that offer. Now please come in.” He turned around and – still with a light limp – he walked back behind the desk and sat down. Only then Elsa noticed that they weren't alone. Camile Wray was also sitting in a chair in front of the desk next to which another free chair was located. Confused Elsa entered the room and closed the door from the inside. She walked over to the desk and nodded towards the other woman.

“Good morning, Ms. Wray”, she said with an as sincere smile as possible.

“Good morning, Ms. Agdarsdatter”, the other replied stiffly and Elsa placed herself on the vacant chair.

“So... how can I help you both?”, Elsa asked.

Colonel Young folded his hands, placed them on the desk in front of him and looked at her. “As it seems we're stuck on this ship for the time being, we”, he nodded into the direction of Wray, “have come to the conclusion that maybe a schedule for our activities and the usage of the stones would be a good idea to keep things organized.”

“So far, so good. But why am I here?”

“We... well...”, the Colonel began, but was interrupted by Wray.

“Since you were a Queen we thought that you know how to properly organize such affairs and thus are able to help us with this tedious work.”

“You... uhm...” Okay, she had to digest this news first. She snorted than shook her head. “Do you really think that a monarch has to deal with such matters? Even the most absolutistic rulers have officials to do that stuff!” If Elsa wanted to make Colonel Young and Camile Wray feel embarrassed she seemed to have done it as both had quite a red tint in their faces. However they weren't entirely wrong with their assumption that she knew how such things worked. During her childhood and adolescence she had learned all kinds of various tasks form her parents and her tutors, even those that she wouldn't necessarily need to do as queen, so that she would at least appreciate the work her officials did. She sighed. “Nevertheless I _did_ indeed learn to craft schedules. My father had demanded some as exercises. So... yeah... I'll help you.”

The Colonel had somewhat collected himself first. “So... uh... okay. Good. Uhm... How do you suggest we begin then?”

“It might be best to first plan a schedule for the visits to Earth. Since we are basically cut off from home people will need that lifeline most especially for literally taking a vacation from here. Thereby I suggest that we give people at least half a day, maybe even more for each trip and try to utilize as many stones as possible – we have five, right?” Young nodded. “Perhaps we should even give the people who live abroad more time so that they can reach their countries.”

“You are the only one who lives abroad”, Wray interjected, looking out of the window as if she tried to avoid Elsa's gaze.

“Okay, fine, then we...” That was when the meaning of Wray's words finally settled in. “Wait a second. _That's_ why you were suspicious of me, right? You thought that if I was the only one in the base who wasn't from the States then there had to be a reason why I was there. Are my assumptions correct, Ms. Wray?” The woman continued to look out of the window for a few more seconds, then she sighed and finally looked straight at Elsa.

“I honestly didn't know what to expect. It was an American funded mission with little support by the IOA. Of course I was skeptical when I saw your file and that you were from Norway. I didn't care whether you were the most gifted Ancient linguist aside from Daniel Jackson or the most advanced developer Homeworld Command had or that you had served five years on _Atlantis_. The sole thing that bothered me was that you were the only person who didn't have their primary residence in the US.”

“But why? Surely I hope that you aren't xenophobic.” Elsa studied the other woman as closely as possible when she said that word and thankfully her facial expression changed in a way that let the blonde relax again.

“God, no. It's just...” Wray exhaled throwing up her hands in frustration. “I simply don't trust Homeworld Command.” She glanced at Colonel Young. “No offense.” The Colonel merely held up his hands as if to say that he had taken none. “All these years they had kept the Stargate a secret and only since the discovery of the outpost in Antarctica and the subsequent trip to _Atlantis_ they have started to loosen up. And now imagine my surprise when I saw you on that list and especially on the payroll of Homeworld Command. I didn't know what to expect.” She smirked and shook her head. “No, I definitely didn't know what to expect.” The woman really had to have a grudge with Homeworld Command if she had expected Elsa to be a spy or whatever she had thought. Of course she couldn't quite deny Wray's train of thought considering that Elsa had indeed hidden something.

“It's okay, it really is”, Elsa said with an as disarming smile as possible. “I can assure you that I wasn't on Icarus base because of some secret agenda of Homeworld Command. They had asked me whether I wanted to tackle this project since I was the one who had found the address in the database and who also was experienced enough. My ice powers or any other part of my Ancient heritage absolutely played no role in this.” Even if her friendship with Brody was currently strained, maybe she could improve her relationship with Wray a bit through this?

Just then Colonel Young cleared his throat. “Okay, ladies, now that we have that out of the way, how about we go on with the topic at hand?” He sent both of them a reassuring smile.

“Okay, right”, Elsa began. How could they best design the schedule? What about... what about herself? Her powers are for sure connected with her body and not her consciousness so they would stay on _Destiny_ , but what about the person who would inhabit her body for the time being? No, it had taken herself long enough to get control of her powers, she couldn't assume that someone else would be able to exert the necessary control in just mere seconds of being thrown into her body. Besides she had a promise to keep up. “Uhm... one thing before I forget it. For the time being I'd like to provide my own stone time to Lieutenant Johansen so that she can use that to further improve her medical skills. So I suggest to design the schedule with that in mind.”

“Wait”, Colonel Young threw in. “Don't you want to go to Earth? Isn't there anybody you want to see?”

Elsa sighed. “Well, there are Sam Carter and Jennifer Keller, but they'll understand if I don't come and then there are my snowmen, but they don't even know what I'm involved with and that I'm off the planet.” She hadn't found the courage to tell her snowmen that she was leaving Earth back when she had left for _Atlantis_ and she hadn't done it either when she had gone to Icarus base. True, by now they had basically as much experience at life as she had, but she didn't want to have them worry about her or worse that they'd want to come along with her. She had told them that she was touring the world and wouldn't have much possibility to communicate with them. But was that really fair to them? Probably not. Maybe she should come clean to them when she gets the chance in the future, especially now that she's literally stuck on the other side of the universe. However there still was that other problem she had. “Also I'm afraid that whoever might take control over my body might accidentally freeze the ship.”

“Do you really have that little confidence in other people?”, Wray enquired and Elsa shook her head with enthusiasm.

“It's not the confidence, Ms. Wray. My powers are connected to my emotions and I had nearly two centuries to learn how to master them and I really sucked – excuse the harsh word, but it's true – during my adolescence at using them. I can't fathom how someone with absolute no prior experience would be able to handle them or more precisely be able not to handle them.”

“I-I see.”

“This is a valid reason and I believe that it's very thoughtful of you to take the safety of the ship first. So unless you find a solution to have someone safely inhabit your body, we'll give your time to TJ.”

“Thank you, Colonel.”

“You're welcome.” With that the topic was closed and they all went on to plan the schedule for using the communication stones and to work out a shift plan for operating the ship for the time being.

* * *

Elsa spent the free time of her next day on the observation deck. She sat on one of the chairs with a table next to it with a possibility to look out through the wide windows showing a vast amount of stars behind the veil of the FTL streamers. Her charged laptop stood on the table and she was working on some improvements for connecting the crew's computers with the Ancient ones aboard the ship. Besides herself the room was vacant for nearly an hour already and while she enjoyed the solitude she also dreaded the implications. Every few minutes she had noticed people looking through the open doors of the room, noticing her and leaving straight away. Obviously most people aboard branded her as a freak again. Just as it had happened on _Atlantis_. It was really, really frustrating and the main reason she preferred to keep her powers a secret. With a sigh she rested her head on her hands, blocking out the view in front of her.

Faintly Elsa heard approaching foot steps, but unlike earlier they didn't turn around again, but came closer.

“Hey”, a soft, female voice said. Elsa knew without looking up that the voice belonged to Lisa Park. “Are you alright?”

Elsa snorted. “Do I look like it?”

“Honestly, no you don't. May I?” Now Elsa looked up and saw Lisa standing on the other side of the table, her hand reaching towards the chair next to her. Elsa merely nodded an acknowledgment and the other woman sat down. “Brody has told me what happened yesterday.”

“I can't blame him for abhorring me.”

“Abhorring?!”, Lisa exclaimed surprised. “He's not abhorring you, Elsa. He's-he's merely disappointed; disappointed that you didn't trust him.”

“But I-”, Elsa began, but Lisa interrupted by holding up her hand.

“I know. And I'm sure in time he will understand as well.”

“Even if he should, there are enough who are still wary of me and what I'm able to do.”

“Can you blame them though?”

Well, could she really? How would she react if someone told her they had a mystic power and she did not? Lisa was right. “No, I can't”, Elsa whispered.

“You can only show them that you mean them no harm, that you can still be their friend, despite or maybe better because of who you are.” Elsa definitely didn't mean anyone aboard any harm. But could she really be sure everything would be alright? Thinking back at two days ago when she had threatened Lieutenant Scott didn't make this easier. “But most importantly, don't let them bring you down. Show them that you're strong nevertheless.”

“I-I'll try.” Elsa hoped that Lisa didn't pick up the doubts in her voice or that she'd at least understand them differently than Elsa had meant them. Just then the other woman reached out for Elsa's hands, with the blonde inhaling sharply once their hands touched. It had been quite some time since someone had touched her hands in the way Lisa did right now. True, she had shook hands with various people, but this wasn't a mere politeness, a mere socially expected gesture, this was an expression of supportiveness, of friendship, maybe even with a hint of intimacy that Elsa chose to ignore for now.

“Should you need anyone to talk to, I'll be there for you.” Lisa squeezed Elsa's hand a bit before letting go and standing up. Maybe the woman was right. Elsa needed to make the best out of the situation and moping around definitely wouldn't help. She still was one of the most brilliant minds on the ship and her powers made her an important asset to the crew. There'd likely be more episodes like this, but she couldn't let them take her down. She had to fight and she would fight. She hadn't lived 180 years to just give up like that.

Lisa had nearly reached the door when Elsa was able to process the situation again and turned around.

“Lisa.” The other woman stopped immediately and turned her head to look at Elsa expectantly. “Thank you”, Elsa smiled.

“You're welcome”, Lisa responded with a sincere smile and left the room.

At least Elsa wasn't alone in this. She hadn't been alone back in Arendelle, she hadn't been alone on _Atlantis_ and she wasn't alone here either. She had friends. People that cared for her just like she cared for them. And no matter what the people of _Destiny_ thought of her she would be there to protect them, just as a good queen should do. 

* * *

Elsa heaved her stuffed rucksack onto one of the consoles once she had entered the control room, startling both Eli and Rush.

“Sorry,” she smirked. “I'd been to the cargo hold just now to retrieve a few goodies that might prove useful.” She had decided to go down there right after breakfast. She would have preferred if Brody had accompanied her, so that they could have brought up the repair robot as well, but the engineer still avoided her, so she had gone alone and merely filled her rucksack with smaller gimmicks.

“Oh, now I'm curious”, Eli said and nearly jumped over to where Elsa was standing. Rush merely continued to watch from his own console.

“Okay, here we go.” She opened the main compartment of her bag. Elsa bit her lower lip and looked sheepishly from the young man next to her to the head scientist and back, barely containing the enthusiasm inside of her. Eli immediately reached into the bag and his hand came out with a dark gray cuboid around ten centimeters long, five centimeters wide and less than one thick. He turned the object around revealing a darker, rectangular indentation that looked suspiciously like a display and a few buttons at one of the smaller sides. All in all the object resembled a smartphone of the early 2000s or...

“Hey, a PADD!”, Eli exclaimed with a smile that rivaled that of a child on Christmas Eve and held up the device for Rush to see. Elsa laughed as she had already bet that Eli would bring up that Star Trek reference.

“Yes, it's basically something like that”, the blonde began to explain. “According to the description in the database it allows one to hook into the ship's computers, something the dialing remotes don't seem to be able to do as easily. It also seems to double as a communication device which would allow us more directed communications than with radios.”

“Impressive”, Rush said and finally walked over to grab one of the devices for himself, examining it closely. “How many are there?”

“I've brought along around twenty of them. But there are more in the box in the hold and according to the database they appear to be in other cargo holds as well. I believe it's safe to assume that the Ancients considered them as basic items and thus had prepared plenty of them.” Carefully Elsa put the devices out of her rucksack onto tiny stacks on top of the console. The last one she kept for herself. “At least I'll now be able to have bed time stories”, she remarked with a wink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, Brody and Elsa have a bit of conflict, Anna has gotten Elsa a room to "let it go", we finally know why Wray was suspicious of Elsa and I've introduced the "original" element of PADDs (though I have to admit that I got the idea from the story SGU: Guiding Light on FF.net). Otherwise this was mostly a filler chapter, because I wanted to show the crew's reactions to Elsa the next day, but on the other hand I didn't want the events of 'Earth' happen already that early...
> 
> Next chapter will now be 'Earth' and it will be done when it's done. :P


	9. Earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this took me a bit longer than I had anticipated. Maybe I should read less fanfiction during my free time :P
> 
> I hope this chapters clears up a bit Brody's reaction in 'Effect'.
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

It was hard to believe that they all had been stuck on this ship for a bit more than one week already. Certainly it felt like less, likely because they had spent the first few days struggling for survival. Though right now it wasn't easy either. They still had to rely merely on the rations they had and their water reserves weren't the biggest either, especially since the crew had not yet decided whether they'd want Elsa's help with that or not. Elsa would think about this another time though. Right now she was more curious what Colonel Young and Camile Wray had to say to the crew after their most recent visit to Earth. They had called everyone to the gate room and the duo was standing between the staircases with the crew occupying the space between the staircases and the gate.

"May I have everyone's attention?", Young announced loud enough that every discussion died down right away. Certainly he was much better in crowd control than Lieutenant Scott was. The Lieutenant himself seemed to be on his feet again as he was standing amongst the crowd, waiting for whatever his superior had to tell. She didn't know whether he had already talked with Vanessa. Maybe Elsa should ask her on occasion.

"As you might know, Ms. Wray and I had been to Earth today." Since everyone aboard knew the schedule Young, Wray and Elsa had worked on by now this statement was quite meaningless and merely a discussion starter.

"We were informed by General O'Neill that the scientists back home have worked out a plan for us to dial Earth." They had? Immediately excited chatter started in the room. How did they hope to achieve that? In how far had they learned about _Destiny_ 's capabilities? How much knowledge had the stone users been able to channel back to Earth?

"Their plan-" The chatter died down again. "Their plan is to dial Earth while _Destiny_ recharges inside a star. The general consensus among the scientists is that she'll have enough energy at that time to establish a connection back home." Okay, she didn't know much about wormhole physics, but from the mission reports she had read from time to time – especially after Homeworld Command had learned what she was and thus had given her more access to the Stargate program – she knew that the combination of a Stargate and a star usually didn't end well and she considered time travel the most moderate outcome there. If so many problems occurred when a wormhole accidentally went through a star how bad would it be if it originated _inside_ a star? The people around Elsa didn't appear as concerned however. They looked happy at the mere possibility of a silver lining on the horizon.

"They plan to somehow drain _Destiny_ 's power reserves so that she'll have to charge herself again. However we all know that the ship is old, so there might be complications all along the way that we and the scientists aren't even aware of yet. Especially since they are back on Earth and can only work with whatever data we're able to relay to them through the stones." That was the most obvious problem Elsa had with this. How could the scientists even remotely know how the ship would react to this? Did they even have an idea how they'd channel the energy from the energy collectors and power banks into the Stargate?

"This is why I'm not making this decision alone." _Wait, what?_ Elsa would have thought that Young would decide this over all their heads like the military leader he had been trained to be should do, maybe only consulting with Wray as more or less their civilian counterpart of a leader. As Queen she would have needed to make this decision alone, maybe listening to the advice of her council and her familiars, even if it was, like this, a decision potentially about life and death. It seemed she had underestimated the Colonel and her already rather good opinion of him improved further by this.

"If not enough of us are in on this, we'll not do it. At least not now. We'll try to gather further data to help the scientists improve their plan, but we'll not do anything that might put us in more danger than we are in anyway. We'll meet again tomorrow at the same time to decide this so everybody should have enough time to think about this. Dismissed."

Immediately chatter erupted in the room while the people slowly started to file out of the gate room. For a moment her and Dr. Brody's eyes locked and she wasn't sure whether behind the euphoria regarding this news she saw anger or shame. Their eye contact didn't last long as the engineer got lost in the stream of people that flooded out of the room. Elsa instead walked up towards the stairs where the Colonel and Wray were still standing. The officer was flanked by Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer.

On the outside the Lieutenant appeared calm and presented himself as the exemplary soldier he probably thought he was, but his eyes that were trained on Elsa betrayed him. It wasn't a wary look like the other people aboard had regarding, no, it was fear that Elsa saw as she approached. She hadn't wanted this when she had talked to him at that night. She didn't want that people feared her and she still didn't understand what exactly had happened back there, but right now she couldn't do anything. It seemed that the Lieutenant would keep his mouth shut and so would she.

Sergeant Greer seemed to be a different story however. His look was provoking. He likely considered himself the most resourceful fighter aboard and then Elsa came along and revealed that she had powers with which she could put up a formidable fight as well. While he probably wanted to ask her for a fight he didn't know yet what she was capable of in one. He did appear impulsive at times, but at least in this topic he seemed to keep a level head, waiting to learn about her capabilities.

"I hadn't expected you to put this decision up for a vote, Colonel Young", Elsa said once she was close enough.

"It's the right thing to do. I might be the military leader, but quite some on this ship aren't soldiers and thus it would be unfair to force my will on them at least in this situation."

Elsa smiled. "I didn't say that it's bad. Merely unexpected. Though I have the feeling that I already know what the result of the vote will be. The risks are simply too high and dialing from within a star... I don't know."

"What do you mean?", Wray asked.

"Seriously? Did no one of you read the mission reports from the Stargate Center or _Atlantis_?" Wray shook her hand and Colonel Young shrugged.

"Not in detail at least."

The blonde sighed. "Look, various of the security protocols of the Stargates involve stars. Most importantly in the context of avoiding a wormhole to go through them. Elements brought into the star by a wormhole might destabilize the star and if a solar flare happens at the right time we're crossing into the topic of time travel. Though the latter can also happen when the security protocols are in place, cause it's enough to have the wormhole pass near enough. But here we're talking about dialing right from within a star. I'm no expert in wormhole physics, but even for me all warning bells are ringing in my head."

"Strange that they hadn't mentioned that", Wray mumbled.

"Just the more reason not to go through with that. Thank you for explaining, Elsa."

"You're welcome, Colonel." Elsa inclined her head towards the leader of the expedition and afterwards to Wray. "Ms. Wray." The woman nodded back and Elsa turned around to go back to the control room.

* * *

Dr. Rush was already in the control room when Elsa arrived, Eli was nowhere to be seen though. Considering the time he'd probably be in the mess hall to have lunch. Elsa didn't really need to have a meal besides breakfast and dinner despite all the meals consisting of quite a negligible amount of food.

Elsa hadn't been at her console for long when Colonel Young and Camile Wray entered the room as well.

"So, Elsa had already told us how she see's this plan. What about you, Rush?", Young began once he and Camile had positioned themselves next to the console Rush was standing at.

"Is that so? I wonder what she had said", the scientist commented and looked at her with a gaze that truly intimidated her. Wray seemed to notice this as well.

"She is against it, Dr. Rush. No need to shoot daggers at her." The head scientist's eyes widened a bit upon this, turned his attention to Young and otherwise completely ignored Wray's comment.

_And here I thought I'd now be his favorite person on the ship_ , Elsa thought grimly.

"Given how little we know about this ship...", Rush seemed that he wanted to start a longer explanation, but he got interrupted by Wray.

"Can't we at least try it and abort if something goes wrong?"

Rush scoffed. "Well, unfortunately, the, uh, 'something goes wrong' part would most likely mean the ship exploding." Considering the reports Elsa had seen during the previous days she knew that Rush's argument was valid. They didn't know enough about the ship to begin with and what they knew mostly consisted of what did not work. And repairs were slow especially since they didn't have many replacement parts to begin with. Maybe she should find the time to go down to the cargo hold again to check for useable materials. If she remembered correctly she had seen some when she had looked through the database. And then of course there was the repair robot.

"Not according to the people who came up with the idea", the Colonel commented. Now Elsa scoffed as well, but Rush beat her to an answer.

"Well, if only all science was that definitive, Colonel. You're just going to have to choose who you want to believe."

As Rush apparently had said what he wanted to say Elsa used the opportunity to add something herself. "Colonel Young." Both the soldier and the woman looked at her and even Rush seemed to glimpse into her direction. "Those people are back on Earth, they are not here. They only have the data we were able to relay back to them using the stones. Keep that in mind."

The Colonel appeared to be in thought and then slowly nodded. "Noted. Thank you for your time." He nodded towards both Rush and Elsa and then left the room with Wray trailing behind. Elsa's eyes followed them until they both had rounded the corner. Just as she wanted to look back at her console Dr. Rush spoke up.

"I'm surprised that you're pointing out the risks. I thought you'd be more interested in going back."

Elsa couldn't believe her ears. "You're kidding, right? I, basically an Ancient being, wanting to leave this _Ancient_ ship for good? Dr. Rush, was there something strange in your breakfast?"

He looked at her for a moment, deeply in thought apparently.

"No. You're right, I'm sorry." With that the topic was closed for the scientist as he concentrated back on his console while Elsa stood there unbelievingly. Was it just her or did Rush behave out of character? Or was he playing her, testing her? Considering what little she had learned about him during the past months she considered that as quite plausible.

* * *

The next day nearly half the people aboard the ship had been against the execution of the plan. It wasn't the majority, but it were definitely more than enough people. So the Colonel together with the scheduled Chloe and Eli had gone back to Earth to report his decision. Strangely half an hour after the three had departed towards Earth Colonel Young had called for another meeting of the crew in the mess hall though judging from the way Young held himself Elsa had the suspicion that it wasn't Colonel Young at all, but instead Colonel Telford.

"For those of you that wonder", the Colonel began once everyone was gathered. He strode around the free space of the room as if he owned the place. Yeah, that was definitely Telford. "I, Colonel Telford, am in command for the foreseeable future." Elsa rolled her eyes. Sure, he wasn't the one who had ordered this, that had been General O'Neill, but she was sure that Telford had suggested his superior that he'd be the right person for the job. Considering that it apparently was always him that switched with Colonel Young she wondered whether Telford was somehow obsessed with this ship.

"Doctors McCormack and Williams", he gestured towards the bodies of Chloe and Eli respectively, "are already devising a plan to drain _Destiny_ 's power reserves so that the ship will fly to charge itself." Elsa wasn't going to challenge Telford regarding his use of pronouns. In her opinion he definitely wasn't worthy to call the ship 'her', he wasn't even worthy to be here in the first place. This wasn't because he had made advancements on Elsa, no, she didn't trust him in general, basically as much as she had trusted Hans _after_ he had revealed his true self. She had no plan to use her powers while he was on the ship and she surely hoped that the others aboard would keep quiet.

"We'll then channel the energy that the ship is collecting from the star directly into the gate which should allow us to dial Earth", the Colonel continued.

"And what if the power flow can't be controlled?", someone cut in. It was Sergeant Riley. The Colonel merely glanced towards Eli's body, which was inhabited by Dr. Williams.

"Well, if there are any dangerous fluctuations, we just shut it down and allow the ship to continue powering up."

"We're not going to be putting you into any more danger than you're already in just being here", Colonel Telford supplied. Elsa snorted quietly. As if doing strange experiments inside a star was any less dangerous than being on this ship in open space.

"From what I gather, supplies are desperately short." It was Dr. McCormack in Chloe's body who had said that. True, but Elsa and Rush were still confident that _Destiny_ would come up with a suitable planet they could collect supplies from. And then there were the seeds they had brought with them and had started to plant by now. They hadn't touched the seeds in the holds though yet. Also it would still take some time till they could bring in the harvest, but they were working on it.

"And given the condition of the ship, it could experience a fatal break down at any time", Williams added. It wasn't _that_ bad though. Yes, the ship was old and possibly way past its guaranteed lifetime, but considering that, she held together rather well. And if they'd be able to gather or find enough replacement parts and utilize the repair robot – maybe there were even more – they'd get _Destiny_ back into a manageable shape for sure.

"Obviously we can't say for sure that this is going to get you home", Colonel Telford continued. "But the best minds that we have are working on this." _Ha! As if!_ , Elsa contemplated. If really the best minds would be working on this, then Samantha Carter and Rodney McKay would be here instead of these two no-name scientists. True, Homeworld Command had many capable scientists, but Sam and Rodney definitely were the best they had and both had demonstrated this on numerous occasions in the past. The only reason Elsa could think of was that the stranding of the Icarus personnel wasn't important enough to keep the two scientists from their usual tasks.

"And I'm sure you'll agree", Telford looked at Rush who's face was turned to a mutinous expression, "it's well worth pursuing." Not a second after Telford had finished Rush turned around and left the mess hall. Elsa was on Rush's side this time. This wouldn't go well for them one way or the other. "Everyone capable is to help with the repairs. The others stay put in their quarters", the Colonel commanded and went after Rush. The room immediately erupted into chatter with Williams and McCormack trying to organize the people into helping them. They utterly failed though, having even less crowd control skills than Lieutenant Scott. As much as she didn't like the plan it wouldn't help either if they'd have to work with a disorganized mess. Releasing a sigh, Elsa righted herself.

"Silence!", she shouted with has much authority in her voice as she could muster – and that was quite some. The effect was immediate and as desired everyone became silent again. "Thank you", she said in a much softer voice. "Now, Dr. Williams, Dr. McCormack, perhaps it would be wise to inform us how exactly you're planning to drain _Destiny_ 's energy reserves?" She smiled at them, but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

Williams was the first to react and cleared his throat. "Well... we, uh, want to make use of the ship's weapon systems. A few hours of low rate firing to avoid overheating should be enough to drain the reserves far enough to trigger the ship's protocols to replenish them."

Elsa crossed her arms. "We haven't used the weapons since our arrival, but from what we know from _Destiny_ 's damage reports the power conduits to a majority of the turrets seem to be in really bad shape. With the materials we have at hand and the areas we have accessible we don't know yet how much we'll get working again or how much is working in the first hand."

"Then we, uh, should try to repair as much as we can. Uh, right now. Yes." Elsa resisted the urge to facepalm upon this display of ignorance of practical work and turned towards her crewmates.

"We have two working spacesuits available", Elsa noticed that Lisa Park wanted to complain, probably to remind Elsa of her own icesuit, but Elsa shut her down with an intimidating glance. She wouldn't want her powers to get known to these scientists. In addition she hadn't as much experience working with Ancient machinery as others aboard, she'd merely be a hindrance instead of a help. "So two will work on the power conduits in the otherwise inaccessible parts of the ship. The others that are able to help will work on the conduits and turrets that are accessible without a spacesuit. Everyone else either helps the repair teams with supplies or stays out of their way." She thought for a moment whether there was anything else they could do, but she nothing came to her mind. "That's it. Let's do this!", she encouraged the others. That was something else Elsa had learned as Queen. Even if she wasn't supporting a plan for one hundred percent, she should encourage her subjects as good as possible to avoid mistakes in executing said plan. Despite these people not being her subjects, right now, with Colonel Young being absent and Colonel Telford having even less support among both the civilians and the military, she felt the need to act as their leader. She didn't like this one bit and hoped that either the plan would work against all odds and they'd be back on Earth or that Colonel Young would be back soon.

Slowly the people started to disperse until only her and Camile Wray remained. The woman walked up to Elsa wearing a neutral expression.

"I know what you did there", she said. "You don't support this plan, but yet you encourage them. That's quite formidable to do. Thank you." Camile inclined her head.

Elsa smiled shyly. She really adored praise, but yet if she did receive it she didn't know what to do with it either. "Thanks, I guess. I'm- I'm merely trying to get us to work together. We all have the same, uh, goal: to go home."

Camile looked at her with an arched eyebrow. "Do we all really?" With that the woman walked out of the room leaving behind a confused Elsa.

* * *

Elsa and Rush were standing in the Control Interface Room, coordinating the repairs throughout the ship. The two of them had come to the agreement that if they support Telford's plan then they'd do it as thorough as possible, thereby reducing the chance for mistakes and errors with possibly drastic outcomes.

Both of them were monitoring Dr. Brody and Sergeant Riley who were both in an airless section of the ship, wearing the space suits for their protection and trying to repair one of the damaged power conduits. It had turned out that the two men were both good at working with mechanics – for Brody that was basically a given, considering his profession as engineer – as well as able to work inside of spacesuits. Considering the thickness of the gloves and the equipment they needed to handle this wasn't an easy task.

Just then Colonel Telford and the doctors Williams and McCormack stalked into the room.

"You're stalling", Telford commented dryly looking from Elsa to Rush and back again.

"We are doing things the way they need to be done", Rush answered, only looking at Telford for a split second before turning his attention back onto his console.

Williams went up right next to Elsa. "Now, we've isolated power to forty percent of the operational weapon system, and it should be good enough to get us a read on our power reduction capability." He sent an empty smile to Elsa.

"The next time we drop out of FTL", Telford tried to threaten both Rush and Elsa, but he only succeeded in getting McCormack and Williams to flinch a bit. Rush looked up and into the glaring eyes of the Colonel.

"Now look, look, this ship is old and damaged", the scientist gestured towards the console, "the computers aren't registering half the things they're supposed to." Though that was probably not only because of the damages, but also because of the missing master code. "I want manual confirmation before activating something this comprehensive."

"Over eighty percent of this ship is inaccessible without spacesuits right now", Colonel Telford growled. "With only two suits, doing it your way could take months!"

"If that's what it takes", Rush stated not being intimidated by the officer in the slightest. Elsa was glad that the scientist was leading the discussion. Sure, she was able to handle someone like Telford, but she didn't like it.

" _Control room, we're ready here"_ , came Riley's voice out of Elsa's PADD. Remotely Elsa noticed a satisfied smirk on Telford's face, before she concentrated on the console before her.

"Okay, I'm slowly increasing the power flow through the relay." The power distribution was one of the few core systems they were able to control. Without that the whole plan would have been for naught anyway. Elsa watched the display in front of her. It showed how the transport of energy slowly increased. A few more seconds and they would have reached hundred percent. But it seemed that fate had other plans, as suddenly the relay started to blink red and warning messages in Ancient appeared next to it. An alarm started to sound as well. "We have a problem. The power is backing up in the relay." She tried to switch off the power flow, but the system did not react.

"Shut it down", Telford ordered.

"I'm already trying. The relay is not responding." She noticed how Rush tried himself to stop the power flow but it did not help, the relay was going critical. Maybe if Elsa switched off adjacent relays to route the power away from the damaged relay? That could work.

"The problem is contained. It's restricted to that corridor", Willaims said, gesturing onto her display, into her field of view.

"I know!", Elsa snapped and snatched his hand away, registering remotely that in the end it was Eli's hand she was potentially hurting.

"How big of an explosion are we talking about?", Telford asked, but he received no answer. "Elsa! Rush!"

"We are in FTL! If it punctures the hull, disrupts the shield, at all, even for a microsecond, then the entire ship could be in jeopardy", Rush insisted and again Elsa was glad that he was handling the talking right now, so that she could concentrate on finding and applying a solution.

"The power levels are not increasing further, but the flow is still ongoing. Maybe we have a leak in the relay", Elsa exclaimed once she had noticed this.

" _Control room! Disable that relay! Riley is wounded!"_ , came Brody's urgent voice out of Elsa's PADD. Elsa's eyes widened at this news and a curse word nearly escaped her lips, but she held back and instead set her plan in motion. "Rerouting adjacent relays...", she pressed a button, "now!" Slowly she saw the power flow in the relay decreasing and reached for her PADD. "Pressure is decreasing, you can go in now!"

Elsa then put down the device and instead grabbed her radio. "TJ, this is Elsa, Riley needs medical attention. I'll intercept you near the Kino room."

" _Copy."_

* * *

Half an hour later Rush, Brody and Elsa were waiting outside the infirmary. Rush was leaning against a wall, his arms crossed before his chest and apparently deep in thought. Brody was sitting on the floor, next to the infirmary's door, still in the garments one needs to wear underneath the spacesuit. Sweat was all over his body, his eyes unfocused. Elsa was leaning against another wall, her hands clamped around her stomach, like she always did when she was deeply worried. Telford on the other hand was nowhere to be seen.

Just then TJ walked through the open door that if closed would have separated the three of them from the infirmary. She was rubbing her hands, her gaze uncertain. Immediately Brody darted to his feet, Elsa released her stomach and even Rush looked up.

"It's... it's going to be touch and go", TJ admitted, looking at all three of them with sorry eyes and walked past them. Elsa could see the guilt in Brody's eyes. She didn't know yet what exactly had happened down there, but she knew this feeling all to well. Their current relationship might be strained, but she'd be damned if she wouldn't try to comfort the man. Slowly she brought up a hand and rested it on his shoulder. The engineer flinched, then looked at her hand and then her eyes, before he looked back into the infirmary, acknowledging her gesture without a word. Elsa looked into the room as well where Riley was lying on one of the medical beds, covered by a white, thin blanket, another soldier tending to him as a nurse.

"What happened?", Elsa whispered. Brody looked at her, contemplating whether he should tell _her_ about it. After a few moments he relented.

"I... We were outside the door to the corridor when you enabled the relay. Then, uh, it started to leak. Coolant it seemed. Riley... he shoved me to the side and went back in. I tried to stop him, but it was too late. Then the coolant exploded and he flew across the corridor. His visor was... was speckled with blood, I shouted his name, but no answer came... After notifying you folk I went back in and got him out to the pressurized area. He... he might die, because we didn't fix that damn relay correctly, because we rushed with our work to have a way to get home."

"Let's not loose our faith right now, okay? Riley is going to be alive, yes?", Elsa said and squeezed Brody's shoulder.

After a few moments the engineer nodded slowly. "Yes, yes he'll be."

* * *

Elsa was fuming. How dared this... this primate of a Colonel withdraw her from the project?! This was their ship for heaven's sake, not his. She shouted out her frustration.

"And here I thought I took this bad", a voice stated from behind her. Elsa turned around to see Rush leaning onto the door frame of the observation deck, shooing away the snowflakes that drifted towards him.

"Dr. Rush", she stated surprised, her eyes wide. "I-I didn't know you were here. I-I, uhm, I'm sorry for my outburst. Normally I'm much more collected than this. It seems the previous days have caught up with me."

"No need to apologize." He walked towards the center of the room where she was standing. With a flick of her wrist Elsa dissolved the snowflakes in the room. "I understand this frustration, I really do. If I had your powers maybe I would have frozen Telford the instant he told me that I was out of the project."

"Not as long as he's in Young's body. And even then I don't want to hurt anyone." Not that she hadn't hurt others in the past, both physically and psychically, but she had never enjoyed it and it had always hurt her as well.

Rush walked towards the railing.

"You truly are a mystery, you know that?", he said, glancing back at her before looking out the windows which showed them an endless ocean of stars. _Destiny_ had dropped out of FTL a few minutes ago, but Elsa had ignored it. She was already used to the distortion flashing through her body, feeling right... well... at home. She walked up to the railing as well and leaned on it with both arms.

"If I had your powers and lived back in your time", the scientist continued, "I probably would have conquered the world. Most of us would, I guess." He pointed at her. "Yet, you didn't."

"I didn't want people to fear me. I had grown up with the idea that people would fear me and even after I had come out of my isolation and people embraced me and my powers I had feared that others would fear me, especially the rulers of other nations. Most of them were wary of Arendelle, of me. After my coronation we had received more ambassadors than we ever had before. They wanted to keep an eye on me, and I let them. I wanted to show them that I meant them and their countries no harm, that I just wanted to live my life peacefully."

"I take it that it's a good thing then that you weren't 'alive' during the world wars, right?"

She snorted. "Don't think that these were easy times for me despite me not waltzing around as the Queen of Ice and Snow. I had my fair share of interactions, especially with the Nazis." She didn't want to think of these times, not now at least.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything?", came a new voice. Rush kept looking out of the window, while Elsa again was the one who turned around. Camile Wray had walked into the room and closed in to them.

"No, you are not", Elsa said with a smile. "We were just talking."

"About the plan?", Wray asked, leaning onto the railing to the right of Elsa.

"No... not really. More about... my reactions that we were withdrawn from this." Elsa flicked a few snowflakes onto the window that was a meter in front of them, watching them melt on the surface that separated them all from certain death.

"You know... a lot of people are behind this."

"A lot of people play the lottery", Rush commented from Elsa's left. "What's surprising is they'd do it with their lives." Elsa approved silently by nodding her head.

"I know you two are opposed. I have serious concerns myself." Wray exhaled and looked at the scientist and the programmer. "I'm just wondering how much saver it would be if _you_ two were involved." She looked back out the windows.

Suddenly yellow flares appeared outside of the ship, darting away from it. Wray looked startled, Rush's eyes widened a bit in surprised and Elsa was immediately mesmerized by the display. So this were _Destiny_ 's weapons. There were multiple turrets all over the ship. Some with two barrels, some with three. Yellow, elongated balls of energy were leaving the barrels, thereby alternating between each barrel on each turret. The energy projectiles were flying away from the ship into the nothingness of space. Elsa wondered how powerful these weapons were. She knew that the drone weapons _Atlantis_ was equipped with could bore through shielded ships without even stopping and the Asgard beam weapons the Earth ships were equipped with nowadays weren't much worse either. The weapons in front of them however were millions of years older and had experienced much more neglect.

"This is beautiful", Elsa blurted out receiving worried glances from both of her sides. "Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy. But I had said the same thing when the Wraith darts had done their kamikaze runs onto _Atlantis_ ' shield after the first year. There is a certain beauty in such displays of power."

Rush snorted and walked away from the railing. "Come on, Queen of Ice and Snow, we have some power displays to deal with."

Elsa raised an eyebrow in confusion, but followed Rush nevertheless, leaving behind a just as confused looking Camile Wray.

* * *

 

Rush had explained his plan to Elsa and now she was looking for Adam Brody to have him involved as well. They couldn't have too many people involved though as according to Rush they didn't know whom they could trust. And considering what they were about to do she couldn't deny this logic.

She found Brody working on one of the power conduits that would be used to channel the collected solar power into the Stargate. To her relief he was alone. She made herself known while approaching. Normally she walked quietly, a habit she had developed during her years of isolation to avoid Anna finding her. For some reason that habit had stuck until the present day just as the habit of curtseying when greeting important people or – though less often than before – the stifling of a laughter with her hand. Her approach had worked though. He didn't jerk of surprise, but she noticed his attention shifting from the machinery before him to her.

How should she address him though? They hadn't talked much in front of the infirmary's door and thus she didn't know what the state of their relationship was. She decided to stay more on the formal side.

"Dr. Brody", she greeted and she noticed a bit of hesitation in the man, but it disappeared after a few heartbeats.

"Elsa", he answered and nodded towards her. "What can I do for you?" If she should have guessed she'd have said that he tried to keep his voice neutral. If there wouldn't have been the moment in front of the infirmary she would have said he avoided getting angry, but now she wasn't so sure.

"I... we... Rush and I need your help with something. It's about this whole project of getting us home."

He raised an eyebrow. "Didn't Telford withdraw you two from this?"

"He did, but we can't let him go through with his plan. He will put _Destiny_ and everyone in her in jeopardy only to prove his point. We won't go home for now, but we need to make sure that we still have a ship that we can call _home_ afterwards."

He looked back to the conduit before him, processing what she had said. After a few seconds he turned to Elsa again.

"How sure are you two of this?"

"Very", Elsa stated. Well, at least Rush was sure that they wouldn't survive this plan. She herself wasn't however, but she had a different reason to go through with Rush's idea. Anna's actions and words had made clear that Elsa would stay on _Destiny_ for the foreseeable future. So neither an evacuation nor a destruction would go along with that. So she needed to do _something_.

"Okay, count me in", Brody finally answered, straightening himself. "How can I help?"

"We need you to restrict the maximal amount of power that reaches the gate. We won't be able to dial Earth, but at least we won't overload the ship either."

"But won't Telford know that something is up?"

"That's where Rush and I come in. We'll stage a destruction of the ship." Brody's eyes went wide just as Elsa's did when Rush had revealed his plan to her.

"You- you can do that?"

"We have enough access to the ship's systems to introduce a bit of drama to the whole thing and ensure at the same time that nothing bad will happen. At least as long as you ensure that the conduits aren't overloaded for real", Elsa smirked.

"What about the others? Shouldn't they know?"

Elsa shook her head. "No. I know we abuse their trust, but we all know that they _want_ to go home and our plan will rid them of that possibility for the time being. Most of them likely won't understand our reasons beforehand and so – as much as I hate to admit it – it's better to confront them afterwards. Also this way they won't need to play-act. That could foil the plan as well." These were all reasons that Rush had given her. More or less she agreed to them, but she hated to lie to the others. She had just revealed her true origin and then she'd lie to them again. It wasn't right, but it had to be done.

Brody appeared to be in thought. Would he come to the same conclusion as her, that it was really necessary?

"Okay, I'll do it. But promise me that you'll try to find a way home for us!"

"I promise." She didn't need to think long for this. After all she wanted all of them to get home safely. Most of them weren't the kind of people that should be here. But what about herself? Did she want to leave when the time came? She didn't know. She'd face this when the time came which definitely wouldn't be today though.

Brody acknowledged her promise with a nod.

"Okay, see you, uh, in the gate room", Elsa said and turned around. She had walked a few meters when Brody's voice stopped her.

"Elsa, wait." She turned around and looked at him expectantly.

"I, uh, I want to apologize. My, uh, behavior the other day was out of line and it was, uhm, unfair to you. It's just..." He sighed. "This whole situation was... _is_ too much and in those situations I tend to explode and shout at people in my range. It was worse in my youth and I got it under control mostly by now, but sometimes it still breaks through. I'm sorry."

He looked down at the floor, but during his speech she could see in his eyes that he really meant it. And in some way this reminded her of herself and her powers. She, too, had problems to control them during her youth and although she controls them now there still happened slip ups sometimes.

"I forgive you", Elsa responded. Of course the whole episode down there had hurt her, but it wouldn't help to carry a grudge against him because of that. They all needed to work together, they needed to be on the same page so that they could all make the best of their situation.

The engineer looked at her with relief. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now... let's ensure that we all survive the day", she winked at him and walked towards the gate room.

* * *

"What had you told Williams?", Elsa asked from her console in the gate room glancing towards the other console Rush was standing at.

"That I had a way to even our odds", Rush smirked. Well, it wasn't even a lie, since he and her were working on improving their odds of survival.

A message appeared on her display, written by Rush. Since they didn't want to alarm Telford to their plan the two had agreed to communicate the details of their plan non verbally. The message read _"Is the simulation ready?"_.

Elsa typed back an answer. _"Alarms and warnings will start after two thirds of the dialing process. Simulated dialing not entirely ready yet, though these gates are easier to manipulate."_

A minute later another message appeared. _"Good. Keep working. We have time till_ Destiny _arrives at a suitable star."_ They hadn't yet jumped back into FTL, so the power levels weren't low enough yet – Rush had an eye on them from his console. Something occurred to Elsa though.

"How much time will _Destiny_ need to get to a suitable star?", she asked aloud since this was a generic enough question. Rush looked at her and pondered on the question for a moment.

"I don't know for sure yet, but it seems that the FTL drives of the ship, uh, need to spend a minimal amount of time in FTL and another out of FTL. Any shorter time frame might damage the drives beyond repair. From what we've gathered so far the time that needs to be spent in FTL is at least five hours, maybe shorter though."

"So... it's some kind of cool-down time, right?"

"That would be the most logical explanation." Rush turned his attention back to the console.

"Maybe we should check the database whether this is an inherent property of the FTL drive or if this cool-down time merely exists, because of the age of the drive."

"Why do you think that?", the scientist asked without looking up.

"If it is merely because of the age, then maybe we can try to repair the drive, to improve it's efficiency again. We don't know what situations we are going to be in in the future, so the possibility to flee quickly might be worth to investigate."

"You are keeping in mind that for this we'll need full control of the ship first, yes?"

"Of course. That was a given. I'm confident though that we'll manage to solve that." Now finally Rush looked up again and Elsa thought she could see the hint of a smile on his face before his attention turned back to the display in front of him.

That was when foot steps were approaching. It was Colonel Telford who entered the gate room looking from Elsa to Rush and back, not sure whether he was happy about the two's presence in the room, in front of consoles no less.

"What are you doing?", he snapped. Elsa still wasn't used to Young's otherwise calming, supportive voice to be this cold. The communication stones truly were uncanny.

"We're making sure that we still have enough power to control these consoles when approaching the star", Rush explained who had for once looked up from his console to ensure that the Colonel would not get unnecessarily nosy.

"Dr. Williams says you have come up with a way of improving the odds of success." It wasn't a question.

"Well, I don't want to die, Colonel."

Elsa nodded a silent confirmation to Rush's statement. She didn't want to die either that's why she had decided to go along with Rush's plan after all. To think that around a week ago she had no problem with the thought of dying, but then things had changed. Now she'd do anything for the survival of her, the crew and the ship.

"Good. Hopefully, we've proven that's not our goal." Telford sent the two of them a cold smile before leaving the room. Elsa suppressed the shiver running down her spine long enough until the Colonel had rounded the corner. _Okay, maybe the cold_ does _bother me._ Then, without warning, the lights in the room went out and she felt the now familiar wave of entering FTL passing through her.

And just as surprising Telford came back into the room looking at both Rush and Elsa.

"What happened?" The modulation of his voice was different now. This wasn't Telford, this was Young!

"We just jumped to FTL", Rush stated.

"Rush? Agdarsdatter?" And again Telford's modulation was back. What was going on here?!

"Colonel Telford?", Rush asked. Elsa could see how Telford fondled Young's wedding ring that sat on his ring finger.

"Yes..."

"Everything okay?" No, that wasn't real concern in Rush's voice, she knew that by now. The officer meanwhile straightened himself.

"It will be soon enough", he said and strode out of the gate room.

Both Elsa and Rush continued to look for a few seconds at the corner behind which Telford had vanished.

"Okay, what had just happened?!", Elsa exclaimed and Rush turned around to look at her.

"The connection of the communication stones apparently gets temporarily severed upon entering or leaving FTL. It's probably related to the usage of our own, custom base terminals instead of the Ancient ones."

Elsa nodded and filed this piece of knowledge away. Should she ever have a reason to use the communication stones she better made sure not to have any interruptions by the FTL.

A few seconds later another thought came to her. She reached into her jeans' pocket, pulled out the old pocket watch and flipped it open. She struggled a bit to get the watch face illuminated enough, but finally she had taken note of the time. She closed the lid again and put the object back where it belonged. As she looked at Rush she noticed – despite only a few lights faintly illuminating the room – that he was studying her with confusion written all over his face.

"I just checked how long we had been out of FTL", Elsa explained. The head scientist raised an eyebrow, silently urging her to continue. "It's been nearly four hours. So probably the cool-down time is less since we weren't draining energy as fast as we could."

Rush nodded his approval. "Then let's see how long the FTL travel is going to be."

"You think the cool-down times could be different?"

"As long as we don't have proof that they are..." Rush turned his attention back to the console in front of him. He was right of course. It was foolish or even outright dangerous to think that the cool down times might be the same as long as they didn't know that for sure.

* * *

Four hours and thirty seven minutes later _Destiny_ had dropped out of FTL again, a red dwarf star right ahead of her. Everyone had gathered in the gate room, their personal belongings with them. Even though Rush, Elsa and Brody knew for sure that they wouldn't be leaving today they had brought along their stuff as well. After all they had to keep up appearances. Unlike previously Rush and Elsa were now standing behind one console, while Telford, Dr. Williams and Dr. McCormack were standing behind the other, Brody was accompanying them as well.

"Routing power flow to the Stargate. Ready to attempt dialing", Williams stated and Elsa noticed on the display in front of her the change of power flow. The hidden restrictions Brody had added kept that in a safe range though.

"Do it", Telford ordered. A moment later the old Stargate in front of them came to life. It lit up and started to spin to align the bearing above the gate with the first symbol of Earth's address.

The gate continued to dial until suddenly the ship started to shake and electricity arced along the gate. Alarms began to sound through from the two consoles.

"All right, stand back!", Lieutenant Scott shouted. "Everyone, back up!" The Stargate continued to spin, but did no longer lock any chevrons.

"You're going to overload the capacitors", Brody exclaimed while gesturing towards the display Williams was looking at. Williams immediately hit some controls.

"Bringing power flow down", Williams commented. Elsa could see that the power flow did indeed decrease, but she also knew that her simulation that was running on the other console would not show that. Acting a bit she played around with her own controls.

"It's not working. Power flow is breaking through our limitations", she lied.

"Because the system wasn't meant to handle this much power", Rush said in mock rush and also played a bit with the console in front of them.

"Stay calm!", Telford ordered though Elsa could see that he started to loose his calm himself.

"The shield is failing", Elsa warned despite the shield being in perfect working condition, well, at least as perfect as the age of the shield generators permitted.

"Colonel, we need to abort", Williams threw in. _Finally_ , Elsa thought. Telford however seemed not ready to give up right now. He looked first at Williams and then at Brody, but in the end he relented.

"Shut it down", he ordered, his frustration clear.

Williams entered commands at the console. "It's not working." Elsa had to suppress a grin. _Conceal, don't feel, don't let it show._

Telford yanked Williams away from the console to look at him directly. "I thought you said we could stop it!", he shouted.

"I know!" Williams gestured towards the console. "It won't shut down."

The Colonel looked up from Williams onto the gathered, confused and frightened crowd, onto the still rotating Stargate that still had electricity arcing across its surface. Then he dropped his head and clenched his jaw. After a few more seconds he looked at Williams and McCormack and nodded towards them. Right after the three darted out of the gate room.

"Where the hell are you going?!", Lieutenant Scott called after them, but they didn't react. Rush meanwhile nodded towards Brody who followed after the three.

Scott looked at Rush and Elsa, desperation in his eyes. "Do something." Both scientists however kept their calm and Rush picked up his PADD. A minute passed until the words the two of them were waiting for came out of the ancient device.

" _They're gone."_

"Thank you", Rush answered back and Elsa immediately went to work to cancel the simulation. Right away the ship stopped shaking, the Stargate stopped to rotate and shut down, the alarms ceased to blare and the light in the room returned to its normal brightness. Finally Rush stepped forward from behind the console towards the confused crowd of people.

"If I can have everyone's attention, please." Since everyone looked at him expectantly already he sure had that. "I'm sorry to have to tell you that, uh, we will not be going home." A pause. "Not yet, anyway. But you can all relax and return to your quarters. The ship will not be exploding. At least not today." Elsa rolled her eyes. _How comforting._

"Normal power levels will be restored soon. Right?", Scott asked while glaring at Rush.

"Yes. Thank you." Slowly the crowd dispersed, the people murmuring along the way.

Wray, Greer and TJ approached Scott and Rush. Elsa decided to walk towards the little gathering as well.

"You staged the whole thing", Wray hissed, glaring furiously from Rush to Elsa and back again. Elsa gulped, feeling intimidated by the woman.

"So all this was just to get rid of Telford?", TJ asked.

Rush shrugged, but before he could say anything Elsa stepped in. "We had to. Those scientists had not the slightest idea what they're dealing with. And Telford clearly does not have the best of intentions either. Did you see how they simply abandoned us?!" Elsa gestured towards the door through which the three visitors from Earth had left.

"So was the ship going to explode or not?", Greer inquired.

"It for sure would have. Especially now that we've seen more of its damages", Elsa revealed. "But we've put limitations in place and had the ship simulate that everything goes haywire."

"A bit of theater. Always nice", Rush commented, though Elsa was not sure whether that was helpful at all.

"You could have warned us", Scott glared. "You scared the crap out of everybody."

"You were all set into going back home, ignoring all the risks that we might face", Elsa explained.

"We didn't know who was on our side", Rush added and turned to walk out of the room, picking up his bag along the way.

"I had expected something like this from Rush, but from you?", Wray accused Elsa after a few moments.

"You said yourself that you'd feel better if Rush and me would be involved. Well, we got ourselves involved, just not as you had expected us to." Elsa let her gaze wander along the small group in front of her. "Look", she added, "we all want to get home, but there's a right way to do it and a wrong one. This", she gestured towards the gate, "was the wrong one. We need to learn more about _Destiny_ 's capabilities and constraints as well as the dangers of establishing a wormhole from within a star before we attempt something like this again." Her explanation seemed to put the people in front of her at ease, at least somewhat.

* * *

Later that day – _Destiny_ had left the star and was flying faster than light – the crew had gathered in the gate room once more. This time however they weren't waiting for a way home, but instead were listening to a speech delivered by Colonel Young. A Kino was flying above their heads recording the whole event.

"We are going to have to be tough, disciplined." Young was standing on one of the two staircases. "The road may be longer than many of us hoped." Was it wrong that Elsa hoped that the road wouldn't be too short? "We will have to sacrifice, compromise, work together, without exceptions." Especially the 'work together' part was something they all were lacking a bit, okay that was an understatement. "We are going to survive. We are going to make it home. My first priority is to make sure that we all return to those we love." And Elsa's first priority would be that they'd all stay alive. "Thank you."

Slowly the crowd filed out of the room again. Eli had caught the Kino before he left the room, Elsa walking behind him.

Just as she wanted to turn to walk towards her quarters she noticed someone walking up right next to her. Elsa stopped and turned. It was Vanessa James. Unlike the meeting the two had some days ago in Vanessa's quarters she was wearing her uniform jacket right now.

"Hi Vanessa", Elsa smiled genuinely. "How can I help you?"

The other woman looked from left to right, seemingly making sure that the two were alone or at least – since there were still people around them – that certain people weren't near them.

"Scott came to me today", she finally admitted. She paused, looking unsure if she should continue. "He, uh, has broken up with me and... and apologized."

Elsa put her hands encouragingly on the soldier's shoulders. "That's good, that's good. At least you can close that chapter now."

"Yeah... I, uh... thank you."

"Hey, it's okay. If you should ever need someone to confide in again, I'll be there."

"Thanks", Vanessa smiled. "Uhm... good night, Elsa."

"Good night, Vanessa." Elsa kept her gaze trained on the raven haired woman until she had turned into one of the corridors. At least something good had come out of this day even if they hadn't gone back to Earth.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it obvious that I don't like Telford? ;)
> 
> So, Elsa and Brody are friends again, but of course this doesn't mean that all relationships in this story are set in stone. There'll always be possibilities for Elsa to rub someone the wrong way and 'Divided' is coming up in the future as well. ;)
> 
> However the next episode will be 'Time' and there Elsa and the crew will have some other problems to deal with than an annoying Colonel. :D
> 
> Please review if possible.


	10. Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... uhm... hi?! I know it has been quite some time - four months to be precise - since I uploaded my last chapter and I can't stress how sorry I am that it took me so long to finish and then upload this. Mostly it was reallife that got in my way, though mostly in the forms of other things that distracted me. For example I've read through most of the long BSG/SG-1/SGA fanfics on FF.net... *cough* To make up for it, this chapter is 15k words long ;)
> 
> I also wanted to take the opportunity to welcome all my new followers and favers (is that a word?! O.o) and a thank you to those that reviewed.
> 
> At least those of you that read this on FF.net and Tumblr will probably have noticed that this story now has a cover art that I had commissioned from comickergirl on Tumblr. :)
> 
> Also two announcements before I let you read my newest chapter:  
> \- with this chapter I'll need to raise the rating to M again (I got a bit carried away here ;) )  
> \- Warning: apparent major characters death!
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

“What do we have?”, Colonel Young asked as he entered the gate room, eyes trained on the ancient ring on the other side of the room.

“We just sent the Kino through”, Elsa replied, meaning herself and Sergeant Hunter Riley with 'we'. She had arrived in the gate room around a minute after _Destiny_ had dropped out of FTL and the ship had dialed whatever planet they were supposed to go to. Riley had arrived shortly after her, a Kino in his hand.

“And now we've got the data”, Riley stated from one of the two consoles, the other being occupied by Elsa herself. “Breathable atmosphere, very humid, warm temperature.”

Elsa looked at the camera feed the Kino sent to her console. It showed a wall of plants and trees in the proximity of the gate. “Seems we found ourselves a forest. Taking the atmospheric data into account I'd even go so far as to say jungle.” She looked up at the leader of the expedition who seemed to be deep in thought while staring at the silver blue shimmering event horizon of the wormhole.

“Do you have any idea why _Destiny_ stopped for this planet?”, he finally asked.

“Well, we did ask her to check for food. Since jungles are usually rich in vegetation I'd say that maybe we've got a possibility to enrich our diet.” Though Elsa had absolutely no idea whether this was really the reason why _Destiny_ had stopped here. Right now they only were able to ask her to find specific resources, but querying the reason for a stop was a different topic altogether.

She heard an approving grumble from the soldier.

“Good”, he then said. “Shut it down, while we gather a team.”

A press of one of the buttons on her console and the wormhole disengaged with that sound which always reminded her a bit of waves collapsing onto the shore.

* * *

Half an hour later the team was ready and in the gate room. It was arguably the largest team they'd sent through the ship's gate yet aside from their arrival on the ship. Some of the people had already been through _Destiny's_ gate like Rush, Eli, Scott, Greer, James and Franklin. For others, like TJ, Chloe and Volker, it was their first time. For Chloe it was even the first regular visit of a planet through the gate at all – aside from the escape from the Icarus base.

“You're not coming with us?”, Eli asked, leaning onto the console Elsa was standing behind.

“No, I'm not a fan of such a climate”, Elsa responded. If she could avoid jungles she did; the only thing worse were deserts. Of course she had the ability to cool herself, but it was annoying nevertheless. “Besides someone needs to look after the ship with you two gone”, she added with a smirk.

Eli shrugged. “Your loss.”

“Okay, listen up.” Colonel Young had stepped between the two consoles. “We think that _Destiny_ has stopped here for us to gather food. We don't have much equipment to test the edibility, so we'll need to use human testers and hope that we'll be able to treat them should the worst happen.” He paused and looked at the countdown clock behind him. “You have around forty hours till we enter FTL again. Make it count.” The Colonel turned towards Riley. “Dial the gate.”

* * *

Elsa had the control room to herself. With Eli and Rush as well as Brody and Park on the planet she was the only one left who usually worked at the Ancient consoles. It was a calming silence for once. No bickering did disrupt her, no accusations from Rush of people not being able to do their jobs. It was really peaceful. Of course that didn't mean that Elsa managed to get much work done. On a part of her console she kept track of the repair robot her and Brody had finally managed to bring up from the cargo hold around two weeks ago, shortly after the failed attempt to dial Earth. It had taken a while to understand its interface, but in the end they had sent it to repair hull breaches in the proximity of the livable areas. The less strain on the shields the better, they all thought. And as long as they had the raw materials – they had found some in the cargo hold as well and a few days ago _Destiny_ had dropped them near a planet that had some easily mineable metal near the gate – the machine would be able to keep going, with the one or other interruption for charging of course. It was slow work with only one robot, but maybe they'd find more in other cargo holds once they were able to reach them. Even then the repairs were processing faster than if they'd be doing them themselves in spacesuits.

The main space on her console however was dedicated to her task to find information in the Ancient database about the master code they'd need to get full control of _Destiny_ and her systems, but so far she wasn't successful. This of course was quite a source of frustration as it meant that they'd always have those runs against the clock and if they should encounter some hostile alien species – there _had_ to be life in this galaxy – they'd be sitting ducks. A thought that wasn't comforting to any of them, especially not the military aboard.

She heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see the leader of said military walking into the room. She smiled at him.

“Colonel Young, can I help you?”

“The team on the planet just dialed. They said that Volker and Chloe were both ill and TJ had put the whole team under quarantine.”

Elsa's smile fell. “What? How?”

“TJ doesn't know. Right now she thinks that it's something from the planet, but it could also be that it's something on the ship. Do we have any possibility to scan the ship for pathogens?” The three hours the team had spent on the planet definitely would have been a very short incubation time. For the team's sake Elsa hoped that it was something aboard and not from the planet.

“I don't know. I know that in principle the Ancients were capable of this as _Atlantis_ went into lock down when she detected some pathogen a few years back. This ship however is far less advanced, so it might be that she doesn't have the sensors for it or access to them could be hidden behind the master code.”

“Try to find something. I'll tell the infirmary to notify you should anyone turn up with similar symptoms.”

* * *

Elsa hadn't found anything of use in the Ancient database and a few minutes ago she had been notified by the infirmary that other people had reported symptoms. With TJ absent the infirmary was currently run by one of the soldiers with a bit more medical education than the average person on the ship, but that wouldn't help those patients much. Reports from the planet had told them that the disease was widespread, but with the cases now aboard there was no reason to keep the others on the planet. She had thus notified Colonel Young who had said that he'd dial the planet and inform the others. Probably the team was already on their way back by now and TJ would try to find the source with the help of the instruments she had available here.

“ _Elsa, come in.”_ It was the voice of Colonel Young that interrupted the silence in the control room.

Elsa reached for her PADD that was in her jeans' pocket.

“Here Elsa.”

“ _Come to the gate room, we have a, uhm, situation.”_ She raised an eyebrow. A situation? What kind of situation would warrant her presence if Rush just returned? Not that she'd really complain, but it was strange nevertheless...

“On my way”, she responded.

* * *

When Elsa entered the gate room she saw Colonel Young standing next to Sergeant Riley who was as usual manning one of the consoles on this side of the room.

“You called?”, she asked with a smile.

“Look”, Young nodded towards the gate.

Elsa turned to look towards the Ancient device and her eyes widened in surprise. Instead of the surface of the event horizon calmly shimmering like waves on the ocean the complete surface was flickering into existence and away again. All abrupt and in chaotic intervals.

“We can't contact the team. Do you have any idea what this is?”

She was at a loss. “There are many things that can cause a Stargate to lose or block the connection to another gate, but it's the first time that I see it flicker like this.” She paused for a moment gathering her thoughts. “Then again this gate _is_ older than the ones in the Milky Way. Maybe something that doesn't cause problems for those gates does for this.”

“Well, better find out what it is. We need them back!”

“We could try to send through a Kino?”, Sergeant Riley suggested. “Maybe it's only communication that's disturbed.” Since they didn't know what exactly was going on with the gate anyway, that idea was as good as any other.

Elsa nodded towards Riley. “Do it.”

The young soldier darted out of the room to fetch a Kino.

Meanwhile Elsa pulled up the gate's diagnostics on the previously unmanned console and skimmed through them in the hope of finding any irregularities. Colonel Young had moved to stand slightly behind her looking over her shoulder onto the display with the Ancient text. She knew that his Ancient was basically nonexistent, so likely he simply wanted to keep himself occupied. However by standing so close to her, he was unknowingly triggering her old body responses of not wanting anybody near her. It was one thing, if she willingly interacted with others, like with TJ and Chloe on their first days on _Destiny_ or when Eli was standing beside her, but this was different. She wanted to concentrate on the data in front of her and Young hadn't exactly been invited to stand in her close proximity. She let out a quiet sigh. More than one and a half century wasn't enough to completely rid her of these anxieties.

“Colonel Young”, she finally said, turning her head towards him. “I'd appreciate it, if you wouldn't stand as close as you do. I still have some problems with people in my proximity in some situations.” At least she had managed over the decades to open up, to tell people what was bugging her. Even small progress was progress.

The officer took a few steps to the side, distancing himself from her. “Of course, I'm sorry.”

Elsa acknowledged his apology with a nod. However before she had been able to concentrate back on the console Riley came running into the room, a Kino in one of his hands. He placed the Kino a few meters in front of the gate right in the air where it started to float. Immediately Elsa's console picked up the device's data stream and controls.

“Okay, sending through”, she commented, while the Sergeant walked back to his own console.

The Kino moved through the flickering event horizon, but instead of showing the jungle like environment of the planet the team had gone to she was greeted by the Ancient equivalent of the message that told her that the connection had been lost.

“Uhm... we lost it?!”, she stammered with wide eyes.

“So we can't reach our people, right?”, Colonel Young requested.

Elsa deflated and shook her head. “No, we can't.”

“Well, then find a way!”, he ordered, harsher than she was used from him, and walked out of the room. She shared a glance with Riley who seemed to be at a loss as well.

* * *

Five hours had passed and Elsa and Riley were no closer to a solution than they were when they started. They first had the idea to try if the problem was with the Stargate itself, but there was no other Stargate in range that they could have dialed to test this. Elsa had even fetched the laptop with the dialing program she had rescued from Icarus base and plugged it into one of the consoles, but even the then available information dump hadn't helped in any way. The gate always reported that it was working in normal parameters. It didn't take a genius though to see that this definitely was not the case.

To make matters worse however Elsa had started to not feel well as well. Considering that her powers always went a bit out of control when she was ill – mostly ending in the creation of more snowgies – she had alerted Colonel Young right away.

What bothered her however was that the disease seemed to progress differently for her than the rest of the crew, maybe courtesy to her mainly Ancient physiology. While the others aboard had started to feel weak, with a head ache and a pain in the neck, Elsa felt herself having a headache as well and she had started to cough. The coughs had been weak at first, but slowly they got stronger and soon enough snowflakes had started to appear around her as well with each one. No snowgies yet though which she was glad of. While she really adored those little snow creatures – they were basically her children after all – she didn't need any of these mischievous creatures aboard a vessel that was close to a breakdown.

Elsa was in the gate room – alone – checkingthe information the Stargate had provided them with again when a series of coughs interrupted her. The severity increased with each one and she even had to steady herself by leaning onto the console. Once the last cough had passed she heard a sound behind her as if something had hit the floor. She sighed. Probably she had now started to create snowgies, though it had sounded heavier than usual. She turned around and stumbled back towards the console when she had laid sight on what she had created. She wasn't really sure what exactly it was. In principle it looked like a cat, but its legs were more elongated, strengthened with ice, the body longer, more streamlined and the empty eye sockets – empty like those of Marshmallow – didn't convey the usual I'm-above-you-but-I-like-you-nevertheless feeling a cat sent out. All in all the creature looked menacing and that it hissed into her direction didn't help the matter at all.

Would it listen to her? Olaf and Marshmallow definitely did, the snowgies to an extend, but this... this snow cat? Could she even call it a snow cat with the features it possessed?

“Sit!”, she commanded pointing towards the floor the creature was standing at. With relief she saw that the creature lowered its behind onto the metal floor, looking at her with expectation, its ears trying to pick up anything that went on around it.

* * *

Of course Elsa had to notify Colonel Young who arrived a few minutes later. A soon as he entered the room the creature started to growl in his direction.

“Hey! Stop it!”, Elsa ordered it and the beast complied, albeit a bit hesitantly as Elsa noticed. She turned to the Colonel. “Sorry about that.”

“It is certainly something”, he said and stopped around three meters from the creature, not daring to step any closer. His right hand seemed to reach for the sidearm that usually was at his right hip, but since the military personnel wasn't usually wearing any weapons at all aboard the ship his hand grabbed for air.

“Shooting it will likely only aggravate it”, Elsa stated in a low voice hoping that the creature wouldn't necessarily pick it up; its ears turning towards her told her differently however. It began to hiss towards the Colonel showing the icy and especially spiky teeth in its muzzle. The Colonel then held up his hands showing that he meant no danger and indeed the hissing subsided although the creature was still eyeing him with suspicion.

“What can we do about it?”, Colonel Young asked, not taking his eyes off the snow cat, but at least lowering his hands again.

Elsa was at a loss. Never till now she had to deal with a creation of hers that seemed to indeed be malicious. Naive? Been there. Solitary? Jupp. Mischievous? Enough of it. But never malicious. Would it be the right decision to let the snow cat continue to exist, to continue to live? And even if not, how could she end it? She had never dissolved one of her sentient creations. She knew that she had a deep connection with them, so what would it do to her to erase one from existence?

“I-”

She didn't get far with her answer before another series of coughs interrupted her. Sure enough she could hear another thud in her proximity and upon opening her eyes she could see a second snow cat standing in the room, its eyes filled with malicious intent already turned towards the Colonel.

Suddenly she had an idea. She flicked both her wrists and columns of ice sprouted around each of the creatures, rising above them until both rings were closed of by a plate of ice. Additionally horizontal bars came into existence as well to reduce the possibility of escape.

Immediately the now trapped beasts turned towards her as if they recognized right away that their creator had been the source of the imprisonment; unlike with the Colonel they weren't hissing or growling towards her though.

“And if you create another one?”, Young asked.

“I'll trap it as well. I don't think I can destroy them...”

“Will the ice hold if they decide to attack it?”

She honestly didn't know the answer to that. Her ice was sturdy, but then again she knew that Marshmallow was able to march through some of her tougher ice. Without thinking twice about it she improved the strength of the ice that made up the cages.

“Yes, it will”, she finally confirmed with a confident grin.

* * *

With time the headache had gotten worse and now Elsa wasn't able anymore to concentrate enough to continue her work in the gate room, she hadn't been any closer to a solution anyway. She had decided to go to the observation deck and... well... wait for the end. As it turned out the disease was terminal. Over half the people that had remained aboard had already died, another quarter was close to it and the last quarter was already showing strong signs of the illness. She had to trap four more snow cats since her meeting with Young five hours ago. She didn't know how he was though, she hadn't seen him since then.

After what seemed to be an eternity she had reached the observation deck and slumped down in one of the lounge chairs that looked out into the vastness of space. The lights in the room were dimmed so her eyes could adjust to the darkness that surrounded her and soon enough she could make out details in the sea of stars like the galactic band that traveled from the lower right of her view to the upper left.

_So_ Destiny _isn't aligned with the galactic plane_ , she thought with a smile.

It didn't take long however for her thoughts to travel back to her creations in the gate room. The disease had weakened her as it had been harder to trap the last snow cat than the ones before it. She put down her reading glasses, folded them and hung them with one frame onto her shirt, before she rubbed her eyes. Maybe she could close her eyes for a few minutes? Yes, that would work...

* * *

 It was a scream that awoke Elsa from her uneasy slumber, however she thought it had been part of her dream. She glanced at the countdown clock on the wall behind her and calculated that she had slept for around three hours, at least if the ship hadn't jumped to a new stop since then, which she highly doubted as the scenery before her was the same.

Then she heard a scream again. It hadn't been in her dream! Alerted she got up and sprinted towards the source of the sound which turned out to be one of the large empty storage rooms that they had used for the ill.

Once she had stepped over the door step she stopped dead in her tracks. Her hands went right up to her mouth to suppress a scream of her own that she knew was threatening to come. There was blood everywhere and what appeared to be pieces of bodies. The snowcats, tinged in red, strode around amidst the carnage looking out for anything that moved. They looked at her for a moment, but otherwise completely ignored her.

She stumbled around the corner, out of the room, a hand in front of her mouth, not to keep in a scream, but whatever else her body decided would be good to throw up.

_It's my fault._ She looked at both of her hands. _I may not be a monster, but I created some. And now they are dead._ _They are_ all _dead._ Or were they? She reached for the radio on her belt and keyed it.

“This is Elsa, can anyone hear me?” She had decided to walk to the control room while she listened to the silence of the device in her hand. “Anyone, please respond!” Still no answer.

At the control room she moved to one of the consoles and brought up the map overlay that doubled as a life sign detector. But there was only one dot visible on the whole ship and it was located in the control room: herself.

Elsa fell to her knees, collapsing along the console. She had killed everyone, disappointed everyone to trust her control of her powers. She had failed. Completely and utterly failed. And now she was alone. Tears started to roll down her cheeks that got colder each time they surfaced. Soon enough frozen pathways were leading down her face.

Her sobbing continued for minutes. But then, suddenly, out of nowhere a resolve set in. With the help of the console she stood up. She vanished the icy trails on her face and then walked towards the gate room, ignoring the headache she still had.

* * *

On her way to the gateroom Elsa had avoided to look at the few bodies or parts of them that were spread in the corridors. Aside from the still caged snow golems the gateroom was deserted. So she must have created new ones while she had been asleep. That of course didn't help her already low mood, but she had already decided to solve this.

She just wanted to command the gate to dial when it started to do so by itself. Was the team finally coming back? Was it even good if they did? Wouldn't they all die if they came here and the free snow cats would savage them as well?

The wormhole engaged, but like before the surface was still flickering. Then something came through and stopped in mind air a few meters away from the gate which disengaged right away, steam emitting from the left and right sides of the gate. The object that had appeared was spherical and metallic. A Kino!

Right away she commanded the console in front of her to connect with the sophisticated little device and accessed its database. What she saw was the gate room itself. The Kino was pointing towards the Stargate, the wormhole flickering like it had all the time the past hours.

“ _Okay, sending through.”_ It was a voice, her own voice that said that! This is the Kino she had Riley send through after they had first discovered the flickering! Had the team managed to send it back?

On the recording the Kino moved towards the event horizon and once it entered there was a short break in recording. Then it surfaced again, but she didn't see the jungle planet on the display. She saw herself, in the gateroom, standing behind a console and looking curiously at the Kino. Then the recording stopped.

The Kino they had send through the Stargate had arrived hours later again on _Destiny_? This could only mean one thing: time travel. And that meant that there must have been a solar flare through which the wormhole traveled as that's the only known way for a wormhole to travel forwards or backwards in time, the flare causing the wormhole to loop back to its source gate sometime in the past or the future. Additionally the gates used by _Destiny_ were much more primitive so the flickering, which she had never noticed before, might be caused by the solar flare and the newer gates in the Milky Way were simply more resilient regarding this. At least this way they had a possibility to find out when such a solar flare happened. Elsa's mood had brightened a bit after this exciting discovery, but then a more sober phase set in. What use would such a detection method have if everyone aboard was dead except her?

Elsa sighed, finally remembering why she had come here. She switched off the display of the recording and ordered the gate to dial the jungle planet. Though the destination didn't matter for what she was about to do. She stepped in front of the console, letting her hand wander across the metal surface one last time.

She looked at the gate. The fifth chevron had been locked and the sixth one was already coming up. She readied herself, her plan being to run in just the right time. The seventh symbol moved up towards the bearing above the gate and as soon as the rotation stopped she started to run.

_Destiny or not, Anna, I'm ending this here and now._

The particles of the event horizon started to form inside the gate and just as the wormhole started to leash out she jumped, straight into the unstable, but more important deadly vortex of the wormhole.

* * *

“ _Lieutenant Scott to_ Destiny _, we found something strange”_ , came Lieutenant Scott's voice from the console Elsa and Colonel Young were standing at.

“Here _Destiny_ , go ahead, please”, Elsa replied in place of the Colonel. Just a few seconds ago the first members of a rather large team had left the ship to visit a planet. At least the immediate area around the gate appeared to be a jungle or even rainforest and thus the hope of the crew had been that they'd find new food sources there.

Elsa saw on the console that Lieutenant Scott had been walking up towards the Kino which had been moved closer to the ground by Eli, after it had been surveying the area from above. Once the flying camera was on height of Scott's eyes he continued.

“ _We, uh, we found a Kino.”_ He held up a sphere that definitely looked like one of the ship's Kinos, but its weathered surface also told Elsa that the Kino had been lying there for quite some time.

“That's impossible. We've never been here before”, Colonel Young threw in.

“ _Perhaps the seed ship that had placed the gate had also dropped one?”_ , Eli suggested with his head suddenly appearing on the right of the video frame.

“Unlikely, but possible”, Elsa stated.

“ _Orders, sir?”_ , Scott asked impatiently.

Elsa looked towards their leader who was looking towards the event horizon of the gate, his working jaw showing that he was deep in thought. Looking back at the video feed she saw that Scott was waiting patiently in contrast to his previous question and Eli was glancing around nervously, looking at a non existing watch on his wrist. She thought she faintly heard him humming a waiting tune like in one of those quiz shows.

“Stop the expedition. Everyone back to the ship. Let's check that Kino first”, Colonel Young finally answered.

* * *

Young, Rush, Elsa, Eli, Chloe and TJ had met in Eli's Kino room to watch the footage and the derelict Kino definitely had packed a punch. The video stored on the device showed _them_ , the group that was heading towards the planet to gather resources. As if it wasn't enough to see the teammates do things that they hadn't done yet – Elsa was fairly sure that some kind of time traveling was involved – it got even worse once members of the crew became ill. But even that got topped of by the team being attacked and killed by small, hostile, alien creatures.

Right now the video frame that was paused on the display in front of Eli showed the jungle at night with the Kino lying on the ground. Directly in its view lay Chloe, face down, with one of the alien creatures bursting out of her back. Elsa had already seen quite some... disturbing scenes throughout her life, no matter whether they were real or merely fictional on screen. But it was something entirely different to see someone who was standing right beside you being killed in front of your eyes.

“Okay... What the...”, Eli began, however he was interrupted by Chloe running into a corner of the room and throwing up. Elsa and the others had managed to keep in their nausea, but she definitely agreed with what Eli had wanted to say.

A few moments passed before Chloe walked back to the group that was gathered in front of the video console, everyone looking at her in full understanding. Lieutenant Scott went right over and – placing a hand on her shoulder in concern – he asked her whether she was okay.

“Yeah, it just hit me”, she said with a slow nod.

“You're sure you're okay otherwise?”, TJ asked after she had moved next to the young woman as well, but Chloe merely confirmed.

“Pretty understandable”, Eli chuckled with a glance to the people behind him.

“Not to me”, Chloe commented.

“I was talking about the barfing.”

“I was moving on.” Chloe was getting annoyed now. “How is this possible?”, she asked, looking at Rush and Elsa.

“I don't know”, Rush replied, massaging his chin in thought.

“Oh! What about an alternate reality?”, Eli threw in.

While everyone except Rush and Elsa stared at the young genius with blank faces Elsa decided to add her own opinion.

“Eli's thought doesn't necessarily need to be wrong. Both on _Atlantis_ and in the SGC alternate realities aren't that unheard of.” She noticed a sparkle in Eli's eyes upon her revelation. Maybe she should start a story evening just in case the people aboard should be aware of one or the other lesson learned in the past? “Though other causes like time travel are also plausible right now.”

And now Eli's eyes even went wide. “Time travel?!”

Elsa shrugged. “Wouldn't be the first time.” A bit too late she noticed the pun she had just said, but she decided to ignore it.

“This is so cool!” It seemed that Eli was about to switch to fanboy mode if TJ had not interrupted by speaking with Colonel Young.

“Sir, given the illness that developed on the planet, I suggest we quarantine everyone who went through to retrieve this Kino.”

“Scott, Greer, Eli, Rush.”

“And everyone they came in contact with since returning.” Elsa let out a small groan. She was part of that group thanks to standing next to Eli, Rush and Scott.

“Well, that's all of us.” Obviously the Colonel knew this just as well.

TJ sighed. “I'll have to coordinate on radio. Brody was also in the gate room when they got back.”

“And by now he probably had contact to a good part of the crew”, Elsa remarked, totally not eager to be put under quarantine, but nevertheless understanding the need for it.

As TJ wanted to answer she was interrupted by a confused Eli.

“We were only there for, like, a half-hour at most.”

TJ dropped whatever she had wanted to say and instead addressed the young man's comment first.

“That's more than enough time to come in contact with a contagion.”

The past, especially the one on _Atlantis_ , had taught Elsa that this was definitely true. Nearly always it wasn't her however that had gotten sick – most likely because of her different physiology – but that didn't mean that she hadn't been a carrier.

“No, wait a second”, Scott threw in. “You're worried because people got sick on this recording, which... never happened.”

Elsa resisted the urge to facepalm – but at least she rolled her eyes – before she answered. “You don't have a clue how these things work, right Lieutenant?” Reluctantly he looked at her, both still aware of the strained relationship between them. “If it's indeed time travel we face here things would have gone exactly as on the video if you hadn't found the Kino. Finding the Kino however only changed that we aren't on the planet anymore, but not that we might have caught something either on the planet or something sometime ago.”

“ _If_ we are dealing with time travel”, Rush added.

“Yeah. If. But I'd say the chances are fifty-fifty that we're either dealing with that or an alternate reality.” She glared at the Lieutenant. “That's definitely high enough that we shouldn't ignore the possibility.”

The silence among the group was stretching on for several seconds before Eli interrupted. “And what about the gate? Any idea what had been wrong with that?”

That had bothered Elsa as well. When the team in the recording had been attacked by those creatures they had attempted to dial _Destiny_ , but while the connection itself could be established the event horizon had been flickering. She wasn't enough of an expert to know what the problem had been, but she knew that there were enough reasons for a connection to be unstable. Maybe it even showed that the gates used by _Destiny_ and the seed ships had less secure protocols than their – in design – younger Milky Way and Pegasus counterparts.

“It looks like the wormhole connection was unstable”, stated Rush.

_Thank you, Captain obvious_ , Elsa thought with a roll of her eyes that wasn't seen by the scientist.

“It would have been extremely dangerous to even attempt travel”, he added.

Everyone besides Elsa and Rush looked in thought, at least until TJ spoke up.

“Sir?”

“Go”, Colonel Young merely said and TJ departed to prepare her infirmary and to coordinate the quarantine.

“So... keep watching?”, Eli asked, looking at the others with hopeful eyes.

Young merely nodded.

“Can you fast forward, please?”, Chloe asked. Since the screen was still showing the dead body of the woman Elsa definitely understood her desire to skip this part.

“Yeah.” Eli nodded and jumped to the start of the next recording of the Kino.

* * *

The gathered group continued to watch for a while and it was both disturbing and interesting at once what they learned from it. The list of dead people from the attack had been long. They knew that Eli, Greer, Rush, TJ, Franklin and Scott were alive, albeit the latter had been bitten by one of the creatures and was unconscious. Also Volker had not died of the attack, but of the illness that had struck him and others of the team. The Eli of the recording also theorized that the creatures were nocturnal since they had disappeared upon dawn.

What had been more heartbreaking however was when Eli had began talking with TJ about his personal past. Most importantly that his mother who had been working as a nurse had gotten HIV by a junkie that had struck her with a needle when she had been trying to restrain the patient. The talk with TJ had ended with Eli admitting that his mother would probably just give up if he'd die out here. That had triggered Elsa to give him a quick hug from behind, glad that her motherly instincts and also the friendship she had with the young man had decided to override her still deep rooted need for distance.

A few minutes ago Sergeant Greer had wandered off, with the Colonel following after him a bit later. If Elsa judged the Sergeant right than he was disturbed that his alter ego hadn't been able to defend the expedition.

Just as the Colonel entered the room again, Elsa noticed at the edge of her vision that Chloe collapsed with Scott barely catching her.

“Whoa!”, Scott exclaimed.

Elsa turned around to look at the Lieutenant and the woman he held in his arms.

“What just happened?”, Young asked.

“Uh, she started complaining that her head hurt. She just dropped.”

Elsa hadn't noticed that Chloe had complained. Maybe Elsa had been too mesmerized by the recording?

“It's been three hours since we dropped out of FTL”, Rush said.

“That's about the time people began to get sick on the planet in the recording.” Eli was right. And that Chloe – who wasn't even on the planet this time – got sick as one of the first, strongly suggested that the source of the illness wasn't the planet, but something else. Elsa felt sorry for the young woman. If the recording was anything to go by then the illness was terminal and thus Chloe would be one of the first to leave them. She didn't know the woman for even a month, but already she felt her heart hurt at the thought.

“Let's get her to the infirmary”, Young said and reached for his radio. “TJ, this is Young. Chloe just collapsed, we'll bring her to you.”

* * *

 With Young, Scott and Chloe gone Rush, Eli and Elsa had continued to watch the Kino footage. Their leading officer had rejoined them after a short while.

The remaining team on the recording had found a small cave that they had prepared to defend for the next night as the Stargate was still not working correctly. As night fell and the creatures flocked in towards their position again the remaining ammunition – which wasn't that much to begin with anyway – dwindled rapidly. In the end the Rush on the planet had run out of ammunition, had grabbed the dialing remote and darted off towards the Stargate with Eli in close pursuit. The viewers followed along as the young man had strapped the by now damaged Kino – it turned out that it had been shot by Greer by accident – to his helmet. Thanks to Eli's use of the Kino's night vision the spectators on _Destiny_ were still able to see the environment the other Eli was running through. Shortly before reaching the area of the gate Eli had tripped which managed to relight his helmet light again, which had gone off some minutes before, thus resolving the need for the special viewing mode. When the young man stumbled onto the small clearing of the gate Rush had already dialed it, though the connection was still unstable.

“ _Hey, for a moment there, I thought we were in trouble”_ , the Rush said and jumped through the wormhole.

Eli paused the recording. “For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble?”

Elsa was just as confused as Eli and looked at Rush for an answer. It was Colonel Young however who answered.

“ _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_. It's uh, Butch's last line before he and Sundance run out to face the Bolivians. One of my favorites, too.”

Elsa smirked. “So you two do have something in common after all.”

“It appears so”, was Rush's dry reply and he turned to look at anything besides the Colonel.

With a snicker Eli continued the playback which showed the Eli of the recording returning to the cave just as Sergeant Greer was struck down by a swarm of the hostile creatures.

“Colonel Young, Doctor Rush”, came TJ's voice from the entry of the Kino room and Eli paused the video.

“What's our status?”, the Colonel asked.

Elsa hoped deeply that no one had died yet, especially not Chloe.

The medic sighed. “I'm getting more sick people by the minute. It isn't only the people that went to the planet anymore, but more or less the whole ship. I think however that I've found the cause of the illness.”

“What is it?”, Rush asked, his curiosity stronger than his usual reluctance.

“Come, I'll show you.” With that TJ turned and walked towards the infirmary.

Elsa looked at Rush and Young who both went after the medic and then Elsa decided to follow as well.

* * *

In the infirmary, in which all beds were filled with the worst of the sick, among them Volker, Chloe and to add to Elsa's already sad mood Vanessa James, TJ had guided Rush, Young and Elsa to a microscope in a corner of the room. Rush took a look first, readjusting the focus as he did.

“What is it?”, he asked without looking up.

“Some sort of microorganism”, TJ answered and Rush got up from the microscope which gave Elsa a chance to look through it.

“Something brought back from the planet?”, Colonel Young asked.

Through the binoculars Elsa could see a bunch of microorganisms swarming through the water and doing whatever they did for a living.

“Not the planet they just went to, the planet you, Scott and Elsa went to. The ice planet.”

“That was weeks ago. How do you know?”

Elsa inhaled sharply and looked away from the microscope towards TJ.

“This sample is from the water we brought back, right?”, she asked.

TJ nodded. “When people outside the quarantine started coming down with symptoms, I knew we needed to look for another common cause.”

“But we tested it all the time.” Was Colonel Young grasping for straws to avoid him appearing to be at fault for the misery all of them were in? It certainly appeared so to Elsa, at least he did so unconsciously.

“At the time we couldn't see it.” TJ gestured towards the microscope Elsa was still standing at. “The microscope just wasn't powerful enough, and the organism was just too small.”

It was interesting to imagine that the organism had been smaller than the resolution of the microscope and now it was no problem to see it using the device. The environment in the water reservoir must have been one hell of a paradise for these beings. She took another look through the binoculars.

“Well it isn't now.” Elsa rolled her eyes with Rush pointing out the obvious again.

“It's possible that a batch of water wasn't purified properly, and it contaminated the rest”, TJ explained further.

“So we've all got it.” Elsa noticed a bit of resignation in Colonel Young's voice. Considering that more and more people came down sick and they hadn't the necessary medication to fight this germ she fully understood this. Grimly she remembered a year of her regency in which a rather aggressive variant of the flu had swiped through Arendelle. They had pulled through it despite not having the best medication either, though they had lost some lives as well, among them Gerda, their head servant – though she had been more like a grandmother for her and Anna. Elsa suppressed the memory along with the tears that threatened to surface and turned away from the microscope to listen to TJ's further explanations.

“Well, everyone's immune system is different. The time it takes for symptoms to emerge will vary. But once it's strong enough to pass from the blood to the nervous system, it works fast. And the antibiotics won't cut it.” TJ glanced at Elsa for a moment which in turn wondered how her own, different physiology affected this. She hadn't been in the recording as she hadn't been scheduled to go to the planet, so she didn't know about her own course of disease.

“'Well, for a moment there, I thought we were in trouble'.” Elsa raised an eyebrow when Rush repeated the same quote that his counterpart in the recording had said just before he had jumped into the unstable wormhole.

* * *

Young, Rush and Elsa had returned to the Kino room afterwards as there still had been some footage of the recording left. The Eli in the recording had gone back to the cave they all had sought shelter in only to die himself. Now the only one alive had been Scott who had been unconscious throughout the previous day. At the next morning after discovering the dead body of Eli and retrieving the Kino he had gone to the Stargate which still had not been usable. The young soldier then turned towards the camera, tears clearly visible for everyone.

“ _It's forty-five minutes until_ Destiny _jumps back into FTL. Everyone here is dead, except me. I don't remember much after we were attacked the first night. One of the creatures bit me, and I lost consciousness. I was starting to- to feel sick: headache, pain in the back of the neck. The bite still hurts like a bitch, but everything else is... is better. Um the gate still doesn't seem to be working.”_ He turned the Kino to show the unstable wormhole and then turned it back. _“I-I can't reach_ Destiny _on the radio. I'm hoping it's just a communications problem, and that everything else is... is okay up there. I'm sending this through, and I am expecting that you will send some sort of a signal that it is safe to proceed. I will wait as long as I can, and then I'll head through regardless. On my own, I likely won't survive the night here.”_

The Lieutenant in the recording then tossed the Kino into the Stargate. There was a short pause that Elsa knew came from the process of transmitting an object through the wormhole before it reappeared on the other side. What became immediately clear was that this hadn't been _Destiny_ the Kino had arrived on, but again the jungle planet. The Kino landed on the grass in front of the gate and stopped with its lens turned towards a human body lying in front of it in the grass. It was Rush!

Eli paused the recording. “What just happened?!”, he asked in confusion. But the answer was clear now. It wasn't some kind of alternate reality that they dealt with. It was time travel. The Kino had gone back in time and so had Rush shortly before it. And if that happened in that timeline...

“It went back in time”, Rush interrupted her train of thoughts and left the room towards the gate room, apparently having the same idea has her. Thus she darted after him right away, remotely noticing that the others followed as well.

* * *

 Rush and Elsa reached the gate room first and started to dial the gate towards the jungle planet.

“What are you doing?”, asked Young as he entered the room. It wasn't order or even malice in his voice, just plain curiosity.

“Making sure it hasn't happened yet”, Rush merely stated.

“What hasn't happened yet?”, Eli asked.

“A solar flare”, Elsa jumped in. “If a wormhole's trajectory leads through a solar flare then the wormhole is looped back to its source either in the past or the future. Even the modern gates in the Milky Way or Pegasus don't have a security measure against this, so probably the Ancients deemed the risk of it as minimal. On the other hand both the Stargate Center and _Atlantis_ had 'fun'”, she stressed the word with air quotes, “with it from time to time.” She suppressed a snicker because of that pun. “Though it seems that the Ancients did improve the gates in so far that the modern ones don't flicker if their wormholes cross a solar flare. So in that case we even have an advantage, because we have a way to detect it!” Elsa noticed Rush giving her an appreciative nod.

“Whoa, whoa. This is making my brain hurt. Uh... Oh my god. _Back to the Future._ ”

Elsa honestly didn't know whether Eli was mentioning the movie because of the time travel problem they were facing or because he was thinking about the movie list his alter ego in the recording had mentioned in a discussion with the Rush from the recording.

“How can I not put that on my list.”

Elsa rolled her eyes. Of course he had been thinking about the list. She flicked a few snowflakes in his direction. “Eli!”, she said. “Concentrate!”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry.” His cheeks were red from embarrassment for once. “So, Scott thought that he was sending the Kino back to _Destiny_ , but in reality he sent it to the past?”

Elsa nodded and waited for him to continue.

“Which in turn, uh, led to the creation of a new timeline with us finding the Kino.” He was now beaming at her that he had solved the problem for him, the Colonel and the Sergeant.

Just as Elsa wanted to confirm Eli's summary the Stargate activated. The surface of the wormhole was as stable as usual and no flickering was in sight.

“Thankfully the solar flare hasn't happened yet”, Rush said after he had studied the data from the console. _Destiny_ 's computers did provide more information about the gate than the dialing remote and was surpassed by Earth's dialing program only by a bit. So it was logical to assume that besides seeing the flickering of the event horizon the computers would also inform them about a malfunction.

“And why do we care about that?”, Sergeant Greer asked, probably happy that they hadn't needed to spend a night on that forsaken planet.

“Because I think we might have to go back there”, Rush answered.

* * *

Colonel Young had ordered TJ to the Kino room and together they watched the footage after Lieutenant Scott had woken up from his coma again. The recording had just reached the part in which he described that he was feeling better and Eli paused the playback.

“It's possible, I guess”, TJ mused. “The venom of various animals: snakes, spiders, scorpions, they've all been tested for their antibiotic properties.”

It was true. When Elsa had been in Egypt back in the 1930s she had been bitten by a snake, but luckily the antidote had been already available back then. She shuddered a bit at the thought that she could have died there, putting the thought aside that a few weeks ago she would have willingly died either from asphyxiation or inside a star.

Scott was less convinced however. “Are you saying that... thing that bit me can actually cure what's making everybody sick?”

“You fell into a coma”, TJ started to explain. “It obviously releases some sort of venom when it bites. You apparently survived, said you were feeling better.”

“But, you're just guessing!”, Eli exclaimed. “And those things were... well...”

Elsa put a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe these creatures are why _Destiny_ came here, not the food.”

“What do you mean?”, Young asked confused.

Rush however seemed as if he had a eureka moment.

“We _did_ command the _Destiny_ to look for resources for us. Food, raw materials and so on. However we are not able yet to ask her why she has stopped when she does so. It could very well be that the ship – like her younger sister _Atlantis_ – is equipped with sensors that can register these germs we found. However instead of putting the ship into a quarantine mode it checks the data it receives from the seed ships and adjusts her course accordingly to solve the problem.”

“ _Destiny_ brought us here because of these creatures?” Elsa was glad that Colonel Young wasn't looking at Rush for confirmation. The officer fully respected her intelligence even though she was a woman and a civilian at that.

“Judging from what we know of the ship it's the only sensible explanation.” Rush on the other hand was happy to undermine her, though not because of her gender, but because he disliked competition. Even her Ancient physiology didn't protect her from that aspect of the lead scientist. She suppressed a sigh, but before she could comment herself TJ interrupted the discussion.

“Whatever we do, we should do it quickly. People are going to die from this.” She paused and looked at the others present. “Right now these creatures are our only chance.”

That was when Sergeant Greer snapped to attention.

“I'll go”, he announced, his voice as firm as his body was rigid. Probably he wanted to atone for the mistakes his other self had made in the recording even though he hasn't really done anything in this timeline. But if Greer went maybe Elsa should go as well? After all her ice powers would allow them not to waste their ammunition.

“But not alone”, Young said and nodded towards Scott who in turn snapped to attention and nodded in confirmation. “And I will go with you as well.”

“I should go as well”, Elsa blurted out.

“I'm sure we can handle this on our own”, Scott said, his look clouded a bit by fear, the same fear she had seen in him those few weeks ago. She still didn't know what had happened back then, but it had definitely affected the relationship between the two even after Scott had finally talked with Vanessa and had officially ended their relationship after their failed attempt to return to Earth.

“But...”, Elsa started, however Scott interrupted her.

“I know of your powers, but the planet is no place for anyone who doesn't have military training.” Scott turned towards the Colonel. “Sir?” He didn't want to have her on this mission and this pained her more than Rush's behavior towards her.

The Colonel was in thought for a while before he answered. “I agree. Elsa, you are to stay here on the ship.”

Up to now she had the hope that the Colonel would take her side, that he'd see how her powers would be able to help the team down there to capture the creatures. Maybe in the end it was, because she had been civilian. So much for respecting her despite being a civilian... Would it have been different if she had been part of the military as well?

“Understood”, she grumbled and left towards the control room, fuming like a child that had just been scolded for no reason.

* * *

The team however had never made it back. They had notified those left behind on _Destiny_ that they had reached the roost of the creatures, but they hadn't managed to come back before the solar flare had occurred. Three quarters of an hour hadn't been enough. Now the crew on _Destiny_ was cut of from any potential helping venom as well and all they could do was watch everyone on the ship die one after another. Chloe had already died shortly after the team had left. Eli and Elsa had been standing by her side both shaken by the death of a woman they merely knew for a few weeks. For Elsa it got even worse as not much later she was standing next to the bed of Vanessa, providing the woman company in her last few moments in life. The next hour or so after these two deaths Elsa had spent in the room Anna had shown her a while ago, venting all her frustration and sadness into the creation of spiky, icy creations.

After a few hours more it became clear that Elsa wasn't immune either. However she showed different symptoms, according to TJ likely because of her different physiology. As strange as it sounded Elsa was glad that she wasn't immune. This meant that she wouldn't have to survive _everyone_ aboard, that she'd need to see everyone she had known for months die. No, she would die along with them. What frightened her however was that she didn't know how the disease would manifest itself in her. She had started to cough, her head began to hurt and she got a fever. Usually this meant that it wasn't long till her powers would act out on their on, creating snowgies with every sneeze. Though she didn't sneeze.

Right now she was standing behind one of the consoles in the control interface room. Despite her head ache it was no use to go to the overfilled infirmary and if she was going to die like everyone else then she could spend her last few hours as she saw fit, namely remotely checking on the repair robot her and Brody had brought up from the cargo hold a few days after the attempt to dial Earth. It had taken a bit to understand its interface, but by now it was slowly, but surely fixing hull breaches next to the areas of the ship that already were accessible without spacesuits.

In the room with Elsa were Eli and Rush, both standing at their respective consoles and both yet having to show signs of the disease, but then again their counterparts in the recording hadn't shown signs either till they either died by the creatures or disappeared through the gate respectively.

It was then that another series of coughs ripped through Elsa's body, more intense than any coughs before. And once the last cough had faded away there was a thud of something hitting the floor.

So the time had finally come for her magic to act up. Her two companions had looked up as well upon the sound and she could see the eyes of both widen in surprise with Eli even dropping his jaw. Okay... what exactly had she created there? Slowly she turned around and gasped in shock as she laid her eyes upon the creature before her. Instinctively one of her hands reached up to cover her mouth. The creature didn't look even remotely like one of her previous creations, instead it looked more feral, more animalistic. Its main body which was made of snow was long and slim and suspended upon four limbs made of ice that ended in snow paws. The tail consisted of multiple ice segments while the head was round, with a plumb snout in the front and tipped ears at the top. Like with Marshmallow the eye sockets were empty, but nevertheless they emitted malice. All in all the creature reminded her of a feral predator, the closest resemblance being a cheetah.

“What. Is. That?!”, Eli exclaimed and immediately the attention of the snow cat turned towards him with a growl.

Fearing an attack Elsa reached out towards her accidental creation. “Stop! Stand down!” She didn't know whether the cat would follow her orders, but as its creator she at least hoped so. To her relief the cat stopped its growling and looked at her expectantly.

Now Elsa turned halfway towards Eli, still keeping the creature in her vision. “When I'm ill my powers start to act out. Normally they merely create mischievous little snowmen that are easily controlled if one is aware of them, but I've not yet had something like that.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“I... I think so...”, Elsa admitted ashamedly.

“Then we should ask one of the remaining soldiers to put it down”, Rush suggested.

Kill one of her creations? That had never happened yet. What would happen if they did? Would they simply recreate their missing limbs? Marshmallow had told her that he had been able to reattach the missing leg that Hans had cut off during the fight in front of the ice palace. So what were those creatures of her able to do that were created nowadays with her powers being even more powerful than back then? Would she herself _feel_ that the creature was killed? She hadn't lost any of her creations yet, but maybe that would be the first.

Another series of coughs interrupted any further thought and like before it ended with a dull sound somewhere in the room. She turned around to see another of these snow cats directly growling at Rush.

“Stop! He's no enemy!” The cat looked at her for a moment, then back at Rush and gave a last growl as if it was saying that it was keeping an eye on him. Then it backed up a bit, never letting Rush out its sight.

“Maybe you're right”, Elsa then admitted. “But I created them, I should des-, uh, end them.”

She turned around to face the creature behind her and searched for memories full of love, memories of spending time with her sister back in the 19th century, memories of having a family in which no one had been left behind or forgotten. As she felt her powers swell up inside her she reached out a hand towards the snow cat and willed it to dissolve into snow and ice particles. What Elsa however had not expected was the pain. The creature screamed and threw its body around in agony while snow and ice were drifting away from it. And Elsa didn't fare better. She too felt the pain inside of her, but she chose to ignore it for the sake of the crew. She bit her lip in the process, drawing a bit of blood, evident by the metallic taste.

What broke her concentration however was Eli shouting her name. She broke the magic contact with the creature and turned around just in time as the teeth of the other snow cat would have reached the location her outstretched hand had been at merely seconds ago.

With the attack foiled the snow cat positioned itself between its partially dissolved sibling and its creator, growling at the latter.

“Out of the way!”, Elsa commanded, panting heavily as she recovered from the pain. However the creation didn't budge. Instead the eye sockets of the creature began to glow a dark red.

Not wanting to hesitate anymore Elsa shot an icicle at the creature in the hope of impaling it, but it dodged. This time it snarled. Elsa shot more icicles, but the creature continued to dodge. And as she decided to shoot at the other creature instead the former picked her icicle right out of the air with its paws.

It then growled something at the other creature which had gotten hold of its maltreated body and without wasting any more time with the three humans the two snow golems darted out of the control interface room, Elsa shooting an icicle after them.

Elsa looked at her male companions. Eli's eyes were wider than she had seen them up to now and even Rush had a certain look of concern on his otherwise neutral face. Then it occurred to her that she had to warn the others. Those creatures were definitely dangerous and while the soldiers aboard were at least in theory capable to defend themselves they also had a large contingent of civilians that were not. In addition a large and still growing group of both were in one of the larger and mostly empty storage rooms near the infirmary.

But how should she proceed? Contacting TJ, who was in charge of the military personnel with Young absent, might lead to unnecessary delays while using _Destiny_ 's broadcast system might lead to unnecessary panic. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to think about the less destructive solution. Then again they were all going to die anyway, so what did it matter? Maybe her creatures would be even helpful in that regard. _Wait, where had that thought come from?_ Elsa shook her head in the hope of getting rid of these poisonous thoughts. When she heard a human scream some corridors down she made a decision. She reached for the correct button on her console and activated the ship's internal speakers.

“This is Elsa, attention please. There are two snow creatures on the loose.” There was no use in hiding that it was her fault. She wouldn't go into hiding again only because she'd hurt someone again, be it directly or indirectly. Not anymore. “They are dangerous and will probably attack right away.” She mentally imagined that those who had previously eyed her and her powers critically would scoff upon her admitting this. “If you're unarmed, then don't approach them. Lock yourselves in your quarters until the situation is dealt with. Thank you.”

She began to walk towards one of the exits.

“Eli, Rush, I'd like you two to track the movements of the creatures. Use the infrared sensors, they should be the coldest regions on the map. Otherwise stay here where you'll hopefully be safe.” For a moment she thought about creating a guardian for them, but she didn't know whether she could trust her magic for this purpose right now, aside from the fact that she hadn't consciously created a sentient golem since she had created Marshmallow.

Eli nodded quickly, immediately turning his attention towards his console, but Rush on the other hand was about to voice protest.

“Dr. Rush.” She used his title this time on purpose. “I know I'm in no way able to order you around. But I'm asking you as a colleague, please, help me fix this mess.” That was a difference between the two scientists. Rush wasn't eager to willingly accept help, it had to be ordered upon him. For Elsa it hadn't been easy for a long time either, but not because she didn't want to accept help, but because she felt herself not worthy enough of it. After her isolation from her sister she had problems to accept help, even from Anna. But as the time went by she had learned and while she didn't always ask for help when she should – especially when her own psyche was concerned – she did in situations that affected others, something she had to learn as queen of a country.

Rush looked at her for a moment, contemplating her request, before he agreed. Elsa didn't wait any longer. She voiced a small “Thank you” and darted out of the room into the direction she had seen her creatures running.

* * *

“ _They are running right to the cargo hold with the sick!”_ , Eli's voice shouted from Elsa's PADD. She suppressed a curse and darted towards the infirmary. She could feel the creatures, just like she could feel her other snow golems when she was on Earth. She hadn't been aware of this connection at first – or maybe it hadn't existed during the first years – but with time she learned about this special connection she shared with her creatures and had used it to her advantage – mostly to find Olaf when he had repeatedly gone missing on his adventures in Arendelle.

She rounded the next corner and stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes went wide and her hands immediately darted towards her mouth in shock. In front of her lay the bloody remains of whoever unlucky person had been in the way of the creatures, explaining the scream from earlier in the process. She hadn't wanted this. She had never ordered her creations to kill and yet, here she was, eyeing the result of such a killing. Why were these creations so violent?

“ _Elsa, what's going on? You haven't moved in quite some time.”_ Eli's voice ripped her from her state of shock.

“I... uh... I stumbled upon the body of someone who had been... killed by the creatures. Completely ripped apart as it is. I- I can't even identify them right now.”

“ _Elsa, listen to me.”_ It was Rush, not Eli, who spoke this time, sounding more soothing and comforting than she had ever heard him. _“We need you to continue towards the cargo hold. The beasts are still on their way there and they will_ kill _everyone there. You're the only one who can stop them. You are their only hope.”_

She stood there for a moment, eyes on the pools of blood and body parts. Then her resolve settled in. No, she wouldn't let them die, not by her own creations. She reached out her hand to create ice on the floor. She began to skate, creating more of the ice in front of her as she went. At least she trusted her powers that much right now.

* * *

As Elsa entered the cargo hold she could see her creatures standing near the doorway she stood herself in. They were held in check by two soldiers standing in the middle of the room, having their rifles trained upon the icy beasts. The sick that were lying around them seemed completely oblivious to the events however.

One of the creatures – the one she had tried to dissolve – looked around, it's disfigured jaw covered in blood, and upon seeing her it snarled. Elsa didn't hesitate any further and created an ice dome around the two. She could feel them testing the barrier, but it withstood and she began to have the ice grew inward so that it would hopefully crush the creations inside – she didn't have the energy to dissolve both at once.

Soon the pain set in. She could feel it as if it was her own body that was crushed to death and she felt it from two creations at once. She had to speed this up or she wouldn't be able to finish it. Trying to prepare her mind as much as possible for the pain she was about to inflict and feel in return she willed her ice to grow into the whole dome in a mere moment. Just as she did so she let out a loud scream of agony, even shocking the soldiers in front of her. Spikes of ice grew around her, pointing outwards to protect her. Then however the pain was gone. She was panting heavily, but no more pain. And she couldn't feel the snow cats anymore. Exhausted she collapsed to her knees.

As the adrenaline subsided she slowly felt her head ache return just as well as the urge to cough. One of the soldiers, a sturdy woman with short brown hair, walked over to her, stopping short of her ice spikes.

“Everything alright?”

Elsa only managed a weak nod. However the sounds of steps behind her caught her attention. TJ arrived, carrying a sidearm in her hands, shortly after followed by Rush and Eli.

“Report”, TJ said, not to her, but to the soldiers who both snapped to attention.

“Sir, a moment ago two ice creatures that Elsa had warned about through the speakers came into this room, threatening everyone with growls and snarls”, the female soldier that had checked on Elsa began her report. “Then Elsa arrived on a slope of ice and encased the two creatures with a dome of ice that she had apparently grow inwards to crush them. She screamed in agony, but pushed through.”

TJ nodded and began to relax, lowering the sidearm and looking at the ice dome as well as the spikes that surrounded Elsa. Rush and Eli both looked relieved that Elsa had managed to deal with her creations, but otherwise were standing in silence at the entry to the room.

Slowly TJ started to approach Elsa, but the ice spikes were in her way.

“Uh, can you, please, dissolve the spikes?”, TJ asked.

Elsa nodded and while it took more diving in love-filled memories than usual she managed it and right away TJ was all over her, checking her for any injuries. Rush and Eli now moved closer to them as well.

“Why did you create these... beasts?”, TJ asked after she had finished her check up.

“It was an accident.” Elsa looked down at the floor feeling ashamed for her lack of control. Then she looked back at the medic. “When I'm sick my powers can act out though up to now only my sneezes created something and that creatures are usually merely mischievous and no danger otherwise. It seems that my coughs have different properties.” Or was this somehow connected to how she had treated Scott a few weeks ago? She definitely needed to check this – another series of coughs interrupted her train of thought. The coughing was more intense than the previous ones and right away she could hear the thuds of ice creatures coming into existence. She could hear four of these through her coughing and once it stopped and she opened her eyes again she saw it confirmed: four snow cats stood around the group, growling and snarling at them with red glowing eye sockets. She wouldn't be able to get them all at once, not with her head ache and the pain their crushing would inflict, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't try. Slowly she stood up, TJ supporting her.

“What now?”, Rush asked, looking more uneasy than she had ever seen him, understandable though considering that he had no weapon in his hands.

Elsa moved into some form of battle stance with her feet apart to have a stable stand and her hands reaching away from her and glowing blue with ice magic. There was only one way to deal with this as much as it pained her.

“Kill them”, she hissed and apparently that was all her creatures were waiting for, because just as the last sound had left her lips they started to attack the humans.

The soldiers emptied their magazines into the snow creatures while Rush and Eli tried to reach for objects in the room to use as weapons. Elsa threw ice bolts at the creatures, but even impaled by them they didn't cease their attacks. And soon enough they drew first blood. One of the snow cats had grabbed Rush by a leg and dragged him away from the group. Elsa tried to free him by concentrating her own attacks on the snow cat, even trying to crush it similar to before while ignoring the pain that inflicted, but it was no use. The monster ripped through the body of the scientist like a knife cut through warm butter.

Elsa wanted to scream, but she didn't find the power in her to do so. She had just seen her colleague being ripped apart alive, reducing him to nothing, but a puddle of organic matter. TJ and Eli had both stopped as well upon this display and for both this mistake had proven just as fatal.

One by one the snow cats picked through the defenders, ripping them apart and soon enough only Elsa was left. The snow cats however continued to ignore her despite her desperate attacks and instead ripped through the defenseless sick that lay on the floor and had no way to defend themselves or to get away.

In the end everyone alive in the room aside from Elsa had been reduced to a bloody mess. She collapsed to her knees again. She had failed, completely and utterly failed. She had promised herself that no one would get hurt by her magic anymore – at least if she didn't have to defend herself – and now everyone aboard was dead, killed by her creations, even if their creation was by accident.

The four snow cats began to approach her from different sides, snarling and growling at her as they did. This time there would be no way out of it, but she didn't want there to be anyway. She had blood on her hands, both literally and figuratively. She wouldn't ascend, not with such a big flaw. Would she see her parents again on the other side, in the beyond? She hoped so. She closed her eyes and stretched out her arms.

“Do it.”

Her final thoughts while the snow cats ripped her apart were for her beloved baby sister.

* * *

“Destiny _, we found something_ ”, came Lieutenant Scott's voice from the speakers of the console.

“Go ahead, please”, Elsa answered after pressing a button. The first few people of the team that should explore the planet the Stargate had connected with had already disembarked, but the majority of the 20 people strong expedition was still aboard the ship.

“ _We found, uh, two Kinos lying in the grass.”_

Elsa raised an eyebrow in surprise noticing that both Colonel Young and Sergeant Riley that were by her side didn't fare any better. She turned towards the Colonel.

“We have never been to that planet.”

“Do the seed ships drop Kinos on the planets they discover?”, Young asked.

“That would be the first. And now we have even two Kinos. Something isn't right and maybe we should first check whether the Kinos have recorded something.”

The officer looked in thought for a few moments then reached for the button on the console to open communications.

“Everyone come back to _Destiny_. I first want to check what's on the Kinos before we continue.”

The people gathered in the gate room visibly deflated with their excursion being suddenly canceled. They had hoped to find alternative food sources there to add to the bland flavor of the protein powder they had for rations.

“ _Understood.”_

* * *

 Half an hour later Colonel Young, Rush, Elsa, Lieutenant Scott, Eli and Chloe had gathered in the Kino room. They had decided to first watch the video contained on the Kino that did not look as if someone had shot at it. Especially since the length of the video was shorter than the other one.

To the surprise of everyone the video showed the face of Lieutenant Scott as if he was holding the Kino in his hands. His face was dark, courtesy of the darkness around him, illuminated only by the familiar silver blue shimmering of a Stargate's event horizon, nevertheless he looked clearly upset about something.

“ _If you've found this, it's because a solar flare interfered with gate travel, and I managed to send this Kino back in time.”_ Elsa inhaled sharply and she noticed Rush doing the same. They both knew what wonders – both good and bad – the Stargate was capable of, a solar flare leading to time travel being just one of them. _“All right, listen very carefully. There is a disease in the water we brought back from the ice planet. It is fatal, and we have all been drinking it.”_

“I warned you!”, Elsa exclaimed to the Colonel while the Scott on the video had paused to look around after a chittering noise occurred around him.

“ _But there is hope! There's a-a creature that lives on this planet, lots of them actually, that could hold the key to saving you. In small doses their venom actually cures the disease. But be careful, they're-they're deadly. They're also nocturnal. They only come out at night. You can get them during the day while they're asleep in their nest. They're not far from the gate.”_ He hesitated a moment, apparently not sure whether he should say more. _“And... and take Elsa with you. She's your best chance at catching them without remorse.”_

Both Elsa and the Scott in the room shared a quick look of surprise. With them both not being on the best of terms they hadn't expected the other Scott to say something like this. Then again the mission – in this case catching a few of these creatures to save everyone aboard – came before their personal differences.

Meanwhile the Scott in the video had first looked at the Stargate to his right, before a creature that must have been one of those he had mentioned came flying to attack him. But he had heard it and thus shot it – thereby dropping the Kino – without getting hurt. He picked up the Kino again and checked his watch.

“ _Come on!”_ , he shouted towards the wormhole. A short time later it could be seen at the edge of the Kino's vision that the event horizon became unstable, flickering all the time. Scott turned towards the Kino again. _“Please believe me, you don't have much time. Act now, or you're all going to die.”_ He threw the Kino through the event horizon and after a moment it landed again on the same planet with the recording stopping a few seconds later.

Elsa couldn't believe it. They had just witnessed a time travel through the Stargate. She knew that these were possible, but this was probably the first recording ever to document this. Why however was the event horizon flickering? She hadn't read about this in the reports about the previous time travel events that had involved the Stargate. Was it because the Stargates they were working with were much more primitive? Weren't the Ancients able to solve the problems that solar flares posed and merely improved the stability of the event horizon in the newer gates? Probably. There were no Ancients around to ask – though she could ask Anna – thus there was no possibility to find out.

Young immediately reached for his radio once the playback had stopped. “TJ, this is Young, come in.”

“ _TJ here.”_

“Check the water we brought back from the ice planet for any potential disease that we might have overlooked during the first check.”

There was hesitation for a few seconds, but then the answer came back.

“ _Aye, sir.”_

He turned towards the gathered crowd.

“As soon as TJ confirms what was said in the video I'm going to take a team to the planet. Lieutenant Scott, Elsa, you two come with me.”

“Yes, sir”, Scott replied right away.

Elsa merely nodded, unsure whether she should be glad or not that the other Scott had wanted her to come along as well.

* * *

Of course TJ had confirmed the presence of germs in the water that according to her weren't there before. Probably they had been too small back then and the environment conditions in the water tank of _Destiny_ had been a paradise for these microorganisms.

So the team consisting of Colonel Young, Lieutenant Scott, Sergeant Greer, a fourth soldier named Marsden and Elsa had disembarked through the gate. Elsa immediately disliked the muggy atmosphere. Not only did the cold not bother her, but she definitely preferred the lower temperatures of _Destiny_ in this case. She hoped they'd be able to find these creatures quickly, catch a few and then get back to the ship.

After around twenty minutes they had found the nests of the creatures, the increasing smell of sulfur being a good indicator that they had been heading towards something different. The nests were around one meter high chimneys made of dirt with a diameter of again roughly one meter. Inside the chimney went on for many meters, though they didn't check it in detail, since the smell was too overwhelming when looking over the rim of the chimney.

“Now what?”, Lieutenant Scott asked once he had taken a look at the well-nigh endless shaft.

“Let's light the place up and blow those suckers to the surface”, Sergeant Greer suggested with a little hopeful look in his eyes. After his endeavor with the flamethrower a few weeks ago Elsa was sure that the Sergeant had a bit of a pyromanic vein; a pyromanic vein that, if uncontrolled, could very well pose a problem for all of them.

“No need to waste our explosives”, Elsa said and strode forward to the chimney. “I'm here and I can do this just as well.” She hesitated. “I hope.”

“Okay, Elsa will do this and we'll ensure that nothing escapes”, said Young.

Did Elsa just imagine it or did Greer really deflate a little bit upon hearing his superior?

The soldiers then positioned themselves around her with their weapons trained on the nest. She herself flexed her arms and took a more stable stance.

“Okay, okay, here we go.” She imagined the chimney in her mind as good as possible – of course since it was pitch black in there when she had looked that didn't include all details, but it was good enough. First she closed of the bottom of the shaft with a plate of ice, so they'd only have to deal with the creatures above the seal. Then she let a gust of ice cold wind travel down the shaft to freeze all creatures that were clinging to the walls. A small pang in her mind reminded her that she just hurt a living being with her powers. Again. She shook off the feeling. It was either this or they'd all die. And she enjoyed her life on _Destiny_ and her crewmates too much to let that happen. With another motion of her arms she let a blizzard travel from the bottom of the shaft to the top, ripping the frozen creatures from the walls and spewing them from the chimney like confetti. Around forty creatures coated in ice landed all around the chimney for the team to pick up.

Lieutenant Scott went to one of the thirty centimeter long creatures and poked it with his rifle. Neither the creature itself nor its dark violet surface did budge.

“And they stay that way?”, he asked while looking unsure at Elsa.

She merely shrugged. “Sure. As long as I will the ice to be that way.”

“Okay, let's pick a bunch of those and head back to the gate. The sooner TJ gets these the sooner we can have an antidote”, Colonel Young said and grabbed a few of the creatures himself, of which the bat like wings stayed rigid.

* * *

 It turned out that the venom of the creatures indeed was the hoped for antidote. But it did not only cure the disease they had brought with them from the ice planet, it turned out to be a useful medicine in general, at least insofar TJ could tell with the few instruments she had at her disposal.

The germs in the water had also been cleaned using UV light that the water tank was already capable of emitting despite no one having known about this feature previously. This would make their water gathering tasks easier though they'd still need to try to improve their instruments so that they'd detect small germs.

All in all Elsa was glad how things had turned out. At least according to the video on the other, shot Kino it could have been much worse.

She was currently sitting on her bed, her laptop on her knees and worked through some Ancient code to distract herself from the images she had seen there.

“Finally we're through all this timey whimey stuff”, came a voice from beside her bed. Elsa looked up and to no surprise she saw her sister standing there.

Elsa raised an eyebrow, but without further comment Anna slung herself onto the lower part of the bed. With a sad note Elsa noticed that she didn't feel her sister's impact on the mattress. Another reminder that she didn't really exist in this plane of existence.

“That bad, huh?”, Elsa asked, receiving a sigh in response.

Anna rubbed her eyes then looked at her elder sibling.

“It's complicated. On the one hand I haven't been there in person, but on the other hand I remember the other timelines as if I had been.”

“What happened?”, Elsa blurted out, before she could think better of it, her curiosity overwhelming her. Her sister however hesitated. Was she not allowed to talk about the other timelines? But they already had proof of them in form of the two Kinos! Or was it because of _what_ her sister remembered? Finally however Anna answered.

“It was horrible, Elsa. You've seen the video, but that only showed you what happened on the planet and on _Destiny_ the people got ill as well, _you_ got ill as well and your powers acted out and so your coughs created vicious snowcats that you could barely control and they massacred the remaining crew in both cases and in one timeline you were killed by the snowcats while in the other you were so devastated that you killed yourself.” Anna deeply inhaled – despite not being necessary for her – after her rambling. Oh how Elsa had missed her sister's ramblings. Though then her sister's words caught up with her.

“My coughs created snowcats and they killed the crew?!” Her eyes went wide and her hands shot up from the laptop to cover her mouth in shook. “No, no, it can't be.” Elsa shook her head. What had she done?! She was a danger to this ship, to its crew.

“Elsa? Elsa, listen to me!” Remotely Elsa registered the pleading voice of her sister. Her breathing however had already quickened. “It's-it's alright, you have broken the cycle. No one is going to get hurt.”

“But- but what if something like this happens again? What if no solar flare is there to provide us with the possibility to right things?” Slowly she brought her breathing under control again. “I don't want to hurt anybody.” Though she had already hurt these alien creatures just a few hours ago.

“I know.” Anna smiled at Elsa with that small smile that always managed to improve Elsa's mood. “And because you don't _want_ to hurt anyone this will work in your favor. Just- just don't work yourself up if it should happen that you hurt someone, okay? There will be times when you'll have to hurt someone to protect those you love.”

Elsa shook her head in disbelief. “No, I can't, I won't.”

Out of instinct the younger woman moved her hand to pet Elsa's leg, but it slipped right through.

“Ahhh! I can lie on this mattress, but I can't touch you! It's so annoying!” She repeatedly bumped her head against said mattress in frustration. After a few seconds her sister stopped and merely looked at the ceiling.

That was when another disturbing thought occurred to Elsa.

“Anna, do you know why those snowcats were as vicious as you described them to be?”

Her sister continued to look at the ceiling for a while, probably contemplating what she was allowed to tell Elsa. Then however she turned her head and looked Elsa in the eyes.

“Yes, I know. But trust me, in the end everything will turn out alright.”

“And is this in any way connected to how I treated Scott back then?”

Again there was hesitation from Anna, though not as long as previously.

“Yes, it is. I can't tell you more. Please, Elsa, have faith in your destiny.”

“I... I will.” Though could Elsa really have faith in herself if it involved something as horrible as the snowcats ripping through the crew? She wasn't fully convinced and she noticed in the eyes of her younger sibling that Anna wasn't convinced of Elsa's statement either. Nevertheless the visit seemed to be at an end.

“Well, now you know more, so I'll leave you to your Ancient source code.” Anna nodded towards the laptop. “See you.” She waved and then vanished, not even leaving any dent in the mattress.

“See you, too”, Elsa muttered, her thoughts still at the topic her sister had revealed to her. Why did Elsa always seem to hurt others with her powers and more importantly what _was_ wrong with her?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... yeah... I totally wiped Destiny's crew... twice... I'm sorry, please don't hurt me?! *ducks away*
> 
> I have no plan yet when the next chapter is going to be delivered. Likely however it's indeed going to be 'Life' though it might come the time when I'll jump ahead a bit or combine parts of episodes into one chapter... (Justice and Space come to mind for example)
> 
> It would be very nice of you to leave a review on your way out. :)


	11. Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I've got a little present for St Nicholas Day for all of you: a new chapter! ;)
> 
> Thank you for all the follows, favs and reviews this story has received. Also I got an anonymous review on FF.net (okay... it were two, but I was able to pinpoint the second one to an account I already follow myself :P ) and I'm going to quickly answer that here:
> 
> Max: I'm glad you enjoy the way I'm doing things. There are different opinions about this among my readers - at least those that have left a review. In the end I'll simply tell the story that I want to tell, while keeping as much of canon as I deem necessary/important.  
> I'd say that Elsa is aware of the danger she can be for other creatures. Maybe even down to the details you've mentioned... after all she had around 150 years to learn quite a bit and I've yet to disclose what exactly all that is. ;)  
> Yes, I'm aware of superconductivity and superfluidity though I have to admit that I hadn't thought about them in the context of Elsa. I'll have to keep that in mind, thank you for the suggestion.
> 
> Well then, shall we begin? :)
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

“And this suffix provides the declination of the genitive.” Elsa pointed at the floating holographic display with a stick made of ice. While she waited for the people sitting in front of her to digest this she took a quick glance at her pocket watch.

“Well, time flies by when one is having fun”, Elsa giggled, but her “pupils” just looked at her disapprovingly.

“Really”, one of the military participants whispered, just loud enough for Elsa to hear, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Elsa sighed. “Okay, that's it for today. We'll continue tomorrow and please try to learn at least a few of the words till then.”

Just as she had finished her sentence the crew got up and darted out of the room before Elsa would be able to change her mind. She let herself slump against the wall behind her, rubbing her exhausted eyes.

“Hey, you alright?”, interrupted a voice. Elsa opened her eyes and noticed Vanessa James standing next to her.

“I just hadn't thought that teaching Ancient to the crew would be that exhausting.” Elsa had started the lessons a day after their debacle with the jungle planet in the hope that more people would be able to do something useful on the ship. Four days had passed since then, four evenings filled with an hour long lesson in Ancient scripture and language.

Vanessa placed a reassuring hand on Elsa's arm.

“Not everyone is born a teacher”, the soldier said with a smile.

Elsa snorted. “You don't understand. Back on Earth, before I even joined the Pegasus expedition, I had no problem with teaching at the universities I had been a doctor at.” For a moment she wondered what her former colleagues were doing. She had basically and literally vanished from Earth and when the expedition had established contact with Earth again she hadn't sought out her colleagues. Then the next change of identity came and Dr. Maria Dahlberg ceased to exist, having died on her world tour – at least that had been the official story.

“How far in the past was that? Five, six years?”, Vanessa inquired.

Elsa nodded.

“Well, I think it's safe to say that quite a lot changed since then. Stepping through the gate changes people, metaphorically. You have lived through the war with the Wraith, struggled for survival far from home and now even more so. I think no one would think ill of you if that also meant a change in your ability to teach.”

Elsa blinked at the other woman, her gaze concentrated on the other's eyes – looking further down would only result in getting bad ideas after all – and took in what Vanessa had said. She was right. The past five, six years had shaped her, changed her even more than the time since Anna's demise had.

Then a thought occurred to her. She smirked. “I didn't take you for a deep woman, soldier and all.”

Vanessa looked taken aback for a moment, then she smiled as well.

“Don't underestimate me; I _do_ have my moments.” Her smile then fell however, getting back to serious business. “You'll be alright?”

“Yeah”, Elsa said with a nod. “Thanks for caring.” She had to admit that it was nice when people cared for her. There always were those that did, first her parents, Anna of course, Kai and Gerda, then Kristoff and Sven, not to forget her snowmen, and more and more people throughout time. Sometimes she wondered whether she had deserved all this concern, but in the end she always came to the conclusion that this was what probably kept her sane throughout the decades.

“Okay, see you tomorrow then, yes?” Vanessa turned around and walked towards the door at the side of the room.

Elsa just wanted to say goodbye herself when Vanessa stopped, whisked around and pointed at Elsa with a finger.

“Oh, and don't forget that you have training with Scott tomorrow”, she said with a devilish smile and then finally left the room.

A groan was all that Elsa had to say to this revelation. Not that she minded Scott's company – they still didn't talk more than the necessary – but she didn't really look forward to the training sessions that Colonel Young had arranged for the civilians of the crew. Tomorrow would start with them jogging through the ship's corridors. She had to admit however that she could use the exercise. Back on _Atlantis_ she had regularly jogged through the big city, sometimes kept company by Teyla Emmagan or Ronon Dex, the expedition's resident alien humans, or other members of the expedition. On Icarus base there hadn't been any real space to do any jogging and here on _Destiny_ she hadn't done anything like that either, being more concerned with surviving and all that during the past weeks after all.

Elsa switched off the holographic display, picked up her PADD and radio and left to get some sleep. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

* * *

Oh how wrong she had been. Physically exhausted – unlike the mental exhaustion after the Ancient lesson – Elsa had taken a shower before she had arrived in the Control Interface Room to help Rush monitor the exploration of a newly reclaimed section of the ship. She hadn't expected that her stamina would deteriorate so much during the months on Icarus base as opposed to her time on  _Atlantis_ . In her current condition she wouldn't even be able to climb the North Mountain like she had done in the night after her coronation. She'd definitely have to do more training in the near future, but for now she wanted to concentrate on whatever they were going to find in these new sections of the ship.

The repair robot they had sent out to repair hull breaches in adjacent sections to the useable areas had done a good job. So far the team sent out to explore the section – lead by Sergeant Greer – had found a bunch of sleeping quarters, two storage rooms and a small lab. Elsa and Rush were keeping track of the team's progress with a Kino. While Rush was mostly keeping an eye on the Kino's video feed, Elsa was looking at the map showing the heat signatures of the team and the names of the rooms they visited. In a corner of her display she could also see the Kino's video.

The room they were approaching looked promising. It was nearly as big as the Control Interface Room and not marked as a mere crew quarter or something along that line.

“The next one might be something”, Elsa said and looked at Rush.

He however didn't move his head, but at least he glanced at her, a clear invitation of continuing whatever she had wanted to say.

“The room is labeled as 'repository'”, Elsa explained. “I know, this can mean anything and nothing, but I have a feeling that this is going to be something.”

Rush raised an eyebrow. “Well, I think we will see soon enough.” He reached for a button on his console to connect his console's microphone to the Kino's speakers. “Sergeant Greer, if you'd proceed, please.”

“ _Sure, but I'll tell you...”_ Elsa could see Greer pressing the door control panel's button after which he readied his rifle. _“If this is going to be another storage room I'm going to tow you two down here to look for yourself.”_

Elsa grinned while she watched the door sliding apart to reveal a dark room with something standing in the middle. One of the soldiers who knew a bit of Ancient moved up to one of the consoles placed near the walls. For the first time in millions of years he powered up the ancient systems which not only switched on the lights and the consoles all around the room, but most importantly the object in the center of the room, which turned out to be a chair, came to life as well. Metallic restraints where the arms and the legs would be placed moved into position as did two metallic arms at the headrest.

Elsa inhaled sharply once she recognized _how_ significant this discovery might be and she noticed Rush doing the same.

“Don't touch anything!” Rush quickly glanced at Elsa who nodded. “We'll be right there.”

* * *

It hadn't taken Elsa and Rush more than five minutes to reach the room the others were waiting at. Elsa had used the time to notify Colonel Young of their discovery, receiving a disapproving look from Rush in return.

Upon their arrival the two immediately went to work at the consoles in the room, trying to find out as much as possible before Colonel Young would arrive as well. Which he did after another five minutes.

“So, tell me, what do we have”, Young said, once he had entered the room.

“Very likely an answer to our problems”, Rush began to explain. “It's a neural interface to download information directly into one's brain.”

“Looks more like it could fry one's brain”, Greer interrupted from his place at the wall where he didn't stand in the way of either Elsa or Rush.

Elsa immediately knew what the Sergeant was hinting at. “Those are merely electrodes”, she said, meaning the three menacing looking, metallic tips that were mounted on the arms on each side of the headrest. “They attach to the head to allow for the data transmission.”

“And the restraints are just for fun then I guess, hmm?”, Greer continued.

Elsa had to admit that she was a bit at a loss here, but the data of the console in front of her were clear. She shrugged. “Maybe it's an intense experience.”

“It's basically a variant of the Ancient Repository of Knowledge SG-1 had encountered three times during the years”, Rush said. It was definitely no wonder why this room had been labeled as 'repository'. Though the one's in the Milky Way galaxy definitely were much younger, and more sleek, requiring one to only look into them while it was mounted at a wall. Though from the reports that Elsa had read the device at least locked the user's head into place so that the download wouldn't be interrupted. No wonder they were often referred to as 'head sucking thingy', especially by General O'Neill.

Young moved over to the console Rush was standing behind. “And you know what happened when General O'Neill had stuck his head into one of these things?”

Elsa remembered these parts of the reports. General – back then Colonel – O'Neill had a tendency to look for trouble and in two occasions he had found it in the form of the repositories. They could only be used by those that had the Ancient genes and as luck would have it he possessed it, without him or anyone else in Stargate Command knowing it back then of course. The problem had been however that the knowledge downloaded into his brain had been too much, humans simply weren't evolved enough yet, and thus both times he had to be saved by the Asgard, their allies that committed genocide, but otherwise had fulfilled every trope of little grayskinned aliens. But despite these dangers the humans had learned much when the repository had been used. The first time among other things it was that one could dial extragalactic addresses with the Stargate and the second time they learned about the Ancient outpost in Antarctica that _Atlantis_ had departed from ten million years ago which then managed to safe the whole planet from destruction in the present.

“But this one is much older than the other repositories, containing much less data”, Rush defended. “And the master code for _Destiny_ 's systems might be in there.”

“The Asgard are not around anymore to save anyone, Rush”, Young stated. “Whoever sits in that chair might die.”

That might indeed be a possibility... then again... the need of the many outweighed the need of the few, or the one. But would anyone volunteer to possibly forfeit his or her life on the chance of getting the others home? Would _she_ volunteer? Then again with her being more than fifty percent Ancient herself she might be able to pull this off without any sever side effects.

“If it gets the crew home, I'll gladly stick my head in there”, Greer said while looking at the chair.

“No. No one is sitting in there.”

“But Colonel”, Elsa interrupted. “We don't have any access to any of the higher systems of _Destiny_. If the master code is in there we _must_ use that chance. I'm mostly Ancient, so I should do it.”

Rush looked at her with a mixture of jealously, satisfaction and pride.

“How sure are you about this?”, Young asked, now looking at her from his position next to Rush's console.

“I... uhm... I don't know”, Elsa admitted. She wasn't sure at all how much her Ancient heritage would help her here. Yes, she had longevity, immortality basically, she had the powers and a nearly eidetic memory, but was she evolved enough for this?

“Then we won't do it.” Both Elsa and Rush wanted to interrupt, but Young held up a hand. “That's my final word and an order. I'll post guards here to ensure that no one gets any stupid idea.” He glanced at Elsa with that comment.

“But the master code”, Rush finally threw in.

“Well, you'll have to find a way to access the knowledge without sitting in there.” With that he left the room.

Rush rubbed his temples while Elsa deflated a bit. They had the answer to there problems right in front of them, like a bountiful table, but they weren't able to have their cake and to eat it.

“Let's get to work then”, Elsa then said and wanted to concentrate on the console again, that was if Rush hadn't started to rant.

“Stupid military, stupid Young, they have...”

“Hey!”, Sergeant Greer, who had stayed behind, shouted, causing Elsa to flinch. “Stop talking about Colonel Young this way or I'll make good on my plan to add a hole to your body!”

“You wouldn't dare”, Rush snarled back which triggered Greer to storm from the other side of the room towards the scientist's console, murder in his eyes.

Elsa reacted immediately and erected a wall of ice between the two men.

“Both of you, stop it!”, she yelled, getting the men's attention after they had eyed the ice wall in surprise. Elsa continued in a more level voice, though she left no doubt that she was the one with the authority. “You're both grown men and yet you're behaving like children! Does it really need to be like this? Military against civilians? We are all on the same ship, we are all human and we all have the same goals: To survive and to find a way home.” She looked at Rush. “Even if not all of us _want_ to go home.” She finally returned to her more quiet demeanor. “Now Greer will return to guarding this chair and Rush and me will study this chair, maybe adding in some other scientists as well, so that we can either access its knowledge without someone sitting in there or we can place restrictions that will allow a human to sit in it without brain overload. Savvy?” She looked from one of the men to the other, gauging whether they've understood her and that there'd be no more bickering at least not as long as she was present.

The Sergeant was the first to react. He huffed and walked back to his previous place on the other side of the room. There he continued to keep his gaze trained on Rush, though the line of sight was still occupied by the ice wall.

Rush looked at Elsa with a mixture of hate, thankfulness and surprise for a few more moments before he simply continued to work on his console.

Elsa sighed silently in relief and dissolved the icy barrier. While turning her attention back at the console she wondered whether there'd ever be a real unity between the two groups of people aboard or whether this would inevitably lead to a divide, a moment she dreaded as she didn't know which side she'd be on.

* * *

“Faster! Come on you weak bunch! Move your asses! Faster!”, Sergeant Spencer yelled through the room.

They had picked an empty storage room in which the fitness program of the military for the scientists was supposed to take place. As Lieutenant Scott currently was on Earth – he had switched with Telford to Elsa's annoyance – Sergeant Spencer had taken over and by doing so he had stepped up the training by a notch, or two or more likely ten, at least that had been how Elsa felt currently. They had to do squats, pushups including the variant in which one had to stand up in between, various other exercises and right now they were running from one end of the room to the other. Elsa felt completely and utterly exhausted, sweat was running down her whole body causing her exercise clothes to stick to her skin.

“Keep your goddamn snowflakes to yourself, Agdarsdatter!”

Spencer should be lucky that it was only snowflakes that were trailing behind her and that despite her exhaustion she hadn't yet turned the room into a fridge.

“Franklin, haul your fat ass along!”

Elsa glanced towards the mentioned Jeremy Franklin, one of the botanists of the expedition. He looked the worst of them all, his short, black hair sticking to his head as if he had used too much hair gel. He was struggling to move forward or to even hold his balance, probably not used at all to too much exercise judging by his stout body – though he was definitely less stout than Eli.

Just then Franklin stopped moving along, leaned forward while stabilizing his body with his hands on his legs and began to throw up the meager meals they were all served.

“Can't poor Franklin keep in his breakfast?”, Spencer taunted. “Now fetch a towel, clean up that mess and then you'll repeat the whole exercise again!”

That was it, Elsa had enough of this. That was no exercise to improve their fitness, that was torture and she wouldn't allow this to continue.

“Stop it! Don't you see that he's beyond his breaking point already?!”

“Oh and what does a poor wandering library like you know about breaking points, hmm?” Spencer strode up to her where he towered over her.

Elsa righted herself as well, her chin held high, not giving him the satisfaction of intimidating her, despite being a head or two taller than her. In fact he fulfilled every cliché she had about the military. He was big, bigger than Kristoff, had a bald head and a face that looked as if not even a rock thrown right at it would make a difference at all.

“More than you”, Elsa hissed.

“Without your powers you would be just a tiny, frail woman not even remotely able to defend yourself.”

He was trying to tick her off, but she wasn't going to give him that either.

“Maybe you don't know it, but throughout my life I've mastered more than one martial art. I might not be practiced anymore but I definitely wouldn't be defenseless even without my powers.” Thanks to her memory she remembered all the moves she had learned. She might be a bit rusty, but with time she would be able to translate her memories back into muscle movements. But for this grunt it would definitely be enough.

“Well, if you're so sure about yourself, Agdarsdatter, then show it. You, me, here, right now. No ice powers.”

Remotely Elsa noticed how the others around them backed away towards the wall, even Franklin had found his way there. She wasn't the confrontational type. She had learned these martial arts only to defend herself, to not only rely on her powers – though she had found it quite effective to combine her powers with the techniques. Right now however she needed to show this idiot that he shouldn't agitate her, that he shouldn't think that he is superior to her. Her main problem however was that she was exhausted while Spencer had done nothing except shouting at them and thus was completely rested. She wanted to back off, but something inside her urged her to go on, to show this musclehead his rightful position of kneeling in front of her, begging her for forgiveness. Wait... where had that thought come from?

“Okay, let's do this”, Elsa blurted out before she could change her mind and right away a wicked grin started to spread on Spencer's stone face. She just hoped that this hadn't been a mistake.

They moved a bit further into the room, away from the puddle that had been left behind by Franklin, the crowd moving with them.

Spencer and Elsa stood about four meters apart, facing each other. Elsa had picked a stable stance, with her feet a bit apart and her arms bent, but otherwise facing slightly sidewards to balance her. Her opponent on the other hand was standing there, hunched over a bit, seemingly pumping himself up, the grin still on his face. They hadn't arranged for a signal to start, so she wondered when their fight would begin, but a moment later the question answered itself as Spencer started to charge towards her. Surprised she dodged this juggernaut, barely avoiding his arms that were reaching for her. He slowed down, turned around and charged at her again, but unlike before she would be ready now.

Again she stepped aside, but this time she grabbed his wrist when his arm reached for her again. She turned his arm sidewards and then towards his back supported by the momentum that was still carrying his body forward. Before his momentum could however carry her along with him, she applied a bit of pressure at the joint of his wrist causing him to stumble. Quickly bringing up her other hand to his neck she managed to get him to fall face first onto the hard metal floor though without letting go of him. That Spencer's other arm reached forward to catch his fall at least a bit hadn't worried Elsa though as had she knelt down beside him and stretched the arm she had caught upward, straining the men's shoulder joint, all the while keeping her other hand on his neck. She saw his face distorting in pain, but nevertheless kept the pressure up. He needed to see that she had him locked and that he wouldn't be able to reach her with his legs or his other arm, she had made sure of this. It took a few more seconds, but then his other hand lifted a bit and hit the metal floor.

They hadn't agreed on a signal for surrender either, but Elsa had been taught that in a fight like this – thus if it wasn't a dangerous situation, though she didn't know how Spencer thought of this – she had to react to this signal, so she dropped the arm right away and stepped back just in case Spencer fainted his surrender.

Her breathing was hard, but despite her exhaustion she felt more alive than in a long time with all the adrenaline pulsing through her veins. It seemed however that the fight was indeed over as Spencer slowly got up, rubbing his strained arm.

“This lesson is over!”, he barked. “Get out of my sight!”

The gathered crowd didn't have to be told twice as it dispersed right away.

“And you!” He pointed a finger of his other hand right at her. “This isn't over, bitch!” He then turned and stormed out of the room, pushing aside anyone who was standing in his way.

Only once the soldier was out of sight Elsa allowed herself to relax, sinking to her knees, her exhaustion finally catching up with her. She had done it, she had shown Spencer that she wasn't joking. Though what would be the price of this? She had seen his look when he called her a bitch. There had been pure, absolute hate and rage in his eyes. Would she now need to watch her back? Had this only made things worse?

“Hey”, a voice interrupted her thoughts.

Elsa looked up and looked at the still sweaty face of Franklin, the man who had been the catalyst of the fight.

“Thank- thank you for standing up for me.”

Elsa put him off. “It was nothing”, she lied. “I couldn't just let him continue the way he did.”

“Anyway... I owe you a favor”, Franklin said and walked towards the room's door.

“Uhm, Franklin?”, Elsa said upon which Franklin stopped and turned around a bit to face her.

“Yeah?”

“Aren't you forgetting something?”, Elsa asked him with a smile.

“W-what?”

Elsa nodded towards the puddle of half digested ration powder.

“Oh!” A pause. “Oh... Right... Sorry.”

Elsa shook her head and finally got up. She could definitely use a shower right now.

* * *

After a shower, changing into her usual clothes and cleaning her sports clothes Elsa had gone back to the Control Interface Room to check a bit of data she had collected when checking the consoles for the interface chair. Besides Rush and Eli she noticed Lisa Park, Adam Brody and Dale Volker working around there as well. She hadn't even really entered the room however when she was metaphorically tackled by Eli.

“You've fought with Spencer?!”

Of course news traveled faster than light on a small ship like theirs. Then again news did the same on a city like _Atlantis_ despite it being much larger.

“Is it right that you beat him into a bloody pulp?” Eli was jumping up and down which remembered Elsa of an excited Anna. Elsa giggled with a hand before her mouth and then shook her head.

“Oh, Eli, don't believe every rumor you hear. I'm not the type who beats others into 'bloody pulps'.” She leaned towards him and began to whisper. “I'm more the popsicle type.”

Yes, she still remembered what she had done to her sister all those decades ago, that she had hurt her, essentially killed her, but nowadays she was confident enough that at least under normal circumstances she'd be able to control her powers enough so that they wouldn't hurt anyone. Of course she didn't know in how far normal circumstances currently applied, not with what Anna had been able to reveal to her about the other timelines and whatever was wrong about her.

Then again if she'd joke about her powers maybe others around would accept her more easily. At least those that were positive or at least neutral towards her anyway.

Eli's response of laughing confirmed what she had thought, Lisa, Brody as well as Volker smirked as well and maybe, just maybe she had seen a small twitch on Rush's lips as well.

“True, true... now tell me, Elsa, what _did_ you do? And why?” Eli was looking at her with eager, curious eyes, again not much unlike Anna used to do.

Elsa shrugged in response. “I only had a quick combat with Spencer, because he pushed us civilians around and shouted at us as if we were the newest recruits. When he took out his anger on Franklin I stood up for the poor guy who was completely done by then. Someone had to face Spencer otherwise he'd just continue with his abuses.”

“But you don't react to 'chicken', do you?” Eli looked at her with suspicion and it took Elsa a moment before she understood what the young geek was hinting at.

“No, I'm not Marty.” She walked over to her console and switched it on. “Besides, my trigger word used to be 'monster', though it used to trigger another reaction of me.” She looked down at her hands, flexing them. Yeah... so much for joking about her past.

“But you're past that, right? Just like Marty got past it in part three?”

A smile tugged at her lips. Eli definitely was someone. More and more she was glad that the young man was caught up with them in this mess and that she had taken him under her wing, basically her pupil, her... she smirked.

“What's so funny?”, Eli inquired.

“Nothing... I-I just thought of you as my padawan”, Elsa said and noticed a raised eyebrow on Rush who otherwise kept looking at his console.

Eli's reaction however was quite different as first his eyes seemed to shimmer with happiness before he ran around the apple core and the consoles to now physically tackle Elsa into a hug. Elsa was stunned for a moment; she definitely hadn't expected Eli to react the way he did. Finally however she patted him on his back.

“Now, a rule for you, I have”, Elsa then said, playing with the grammar just like Yoda did. Eli released her just enough to look at her with big eyes.

“Yes?”

“No touching.”

Of course she was okay with touches when they were initiated by herself or when someone really needed it like Chloe had after her father's death or simply when the one initiating the touches were part of her family. But other than that she still preferred that others kept to their own private space and didn't invade hers.

It took a moment for the words to sink in, but then Eli released her fully, dropping his arms to his side and taking back a step or two.

“Sorry. I'm sorry... master”, he said with a smirk.

Again Elsa shook her head and with a smile she moved to her console, but not without noticing the look that Lisa was giving her, a look that told Elsa that the other woman thought of what had just transpired as absolutely adorable.

It was quiet for a while among the group, the only sound aside from the ship's background noise and their breathing being the clicking sound of the buttons. Then however the more or less productive atmosphere was interrupted by Rush.

“Hmm. Now that's interesting.”

Immediately Elsa and Eli looked up as did the others. If Rush said aloud that something was interesting there was quite a chance that he had stumbled upon something very important.

“What is it?”, Eli asked.

“Let me first notify Colonel Young.” The scientist reached for his PADD, pressed a few buttons – probably to establish a connection to the Colonel's PADD – and then began to speak. “Colonel Young, this is Rush, if you'd please come to the Control Interface Room, I've made quite some discovery.”

“ _In a moment, Rush”_ , came the answer of the Colonel.

Elsa had tried to concentrate back onto her console, but with how tightlipped Rush was about whatever he had discovered that proved to be quite hard. Thankfully it didn't take long for Young to arrive.

“So, what is it?”, the officer asked once he had entered the room.

The other occupants of the room beside Rush and Young didn't hesitate a moment and hurried around the consoles to take a look at Rush's console as well.

“Well, I've been able to access the subspace link that _Destiny_ has with the seed ships”, Rush began to explain.

“Those ships that place Stargates on planets?”, Young asked.

“Yes, exactly. I've only scratched the surface, but I've found this.” Rush pressed a button and a window opened. Elsa began to read its contents, but it didn't take long for her to understand what exactly Rush had found there. And apparently Eli's skills in Ancient were by now good enough that he noticed that as well.

“According to this”, Eli said pointing at the console while looking at Young, “there a planet similar to the one of the Icarus base around a year out.”

“So in a year we can go back home?”, Volker said with enthusiasm.

“First we need to control the ship however, learn to steer her and to bring her into the orbit of a planet and I'm not even talking about feeding the power of the planet's core into the gate somehow.” Elsa hated to be the bearer of bad news, but someone had to be realistic here, though Rush would have probably said the same.

“Yes”, he confirmed. “But there is an answer to at least the first part of that: the chair.”

Rush hadn't even closed his mouth when Young's answer came. “No.”

“But Colonel Young, the answer is in there”, Rush tried to convince, but it didn't work.

“And you have a year time to find an answer without someone sitting in there. I suggest you to get to work.” With that the Colonel yet again left the room leaving behind nothing but a sour mood.

Elsa had held a high opinion of Young, but these newest tidbits definitely didn't improve her view on him. One the one hand she could understand why he was against it, after all it was a dangerous endeavor, but then again this _was_ a solution to some of their problems and Elsa didn't really know how much they'd get out of the chair without someone sitting in it. At least not if she was judging by the research she had been doing before Rush's discovery. Deep in thought she returned back to her console.

* * *

“Hey, Elsa!”

Elsa turned around to look at the source of the voice. TJ was jogging towards her, a notebook tucked under one arm.

“Hey, TJ. How can I help you?” Despite being tired after their sports activities – including the fight with Spencer – and the discussion with Young after the discovery of the Icarus planet a year away, she smiled at the younger woman. Well... at least going by the real age. If they'd go by appearance then Elsa would be the younger one with her look of an around 20 year old – she didn't know exactly when she had stopped to age.

“Colonel Young had ordered me to do a psychological evaluation of the crew and I wondered whether you have time for a few questions?” By now TJ had stopped next to Elsa in the corridor.

If Elsa was honest she didn't want to have any questions asked right now. She wanted to eat a bowl of rations and vanish into her bed, preferably without having to deal more than necessary with any other crewmate on the ship. But then again she was one of the senior staff aboard the ship – if not by appearance then at least by experience – and she knew from such evaluations in her past that TJ would have a hard time to get everyone aboard to answer her questions. Probably half the crew was actively avoiding the medic by now. So of course Elsa's sense of duty – a remnant of her time as Princess and later on Queen of Arendelle – told her that she should do TJ the favor and be an example for others, even if those others should ignore that example of hers or might not even know about it.

“Of course”, Elsa thus replied with a smile. “Here? Or somewhere else?”

“I've got quarters put aside for this.” TJ gestured towards the direction she had come from. “This way please.”

After a short walk the two women had spent in silence they reached one of _Destiny_ 's numerous two winged doors which opened after the big rusty knob on the door control had been pressed.

Elsa entered the room and did a quick glance around. Like her own quarters these had windows that showed the vast emptiness of space with – like right now – the addition of the streamers of the faster-than-light travel. There was a big, king sized bed with nightstands on both sides, two desks stood below two of the large windows. An additional, to Elsa's surprise one winged door lead to who knew where. Maybe an additional bed room? What probably had been the reason for choosing this room for the psychological evaluations however was the lounge group that consisted of two lounges, an additional armchair and a table. All in all these quarters looked like they had been for a larger group of people, a family perhaps? Had the Ancients planned to come to _Destiny_ with their families? Then of course why wouldn't they? Likely those that would have come would have grown old here, just like they might have to.

TJ gestured to the lounge group. “Have a seat, please.”

Elsa nodded and sat down on one of the two lounges with TJ taking the one opposite of her.

“Okay... uhm... your name is Elsa Agdarsdotter, born on...” TJ looked through her notebook, but didn't seem to find what she was looking for.

“On 17th July 1826 in the city of Arendelle in the kingdom Arendelle”, Else provided for her.

“Yes, thanks.” TJ grabbed a pen and noted the information on the top page of her notebook, probably what was going to be Elsa's file.

“For the Icarus project you were designated as lead programmer and before that you had been the leader of the language department of _Atlantis_ , yes?” TJ glanced at Elsa who chose the right time to nod.

“How would you best describe your tasks here on _Destiny_?”

“Well... I'm second head scientist after Rush, thus having to deal with his antics and whatever he deems unworthy of himself.” Here Elsa rolled her eyes. “Other than that I'm Eli's mentor and recently started lessons in Ancient. Oh and I'm also a possible source of water”, she added with a smirk which led to a small smile spreading on TJ's face.

The medic turned psychoanalyist wrote down what Elsa had answered and then looked back at Elsa. “Uh, a few weeks ago you revealed that you're in fact around 180 years old. How does it feel for you to live amidst a group of people that don't even reach a part of your age?”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. It seemed that TJ went right to the hard questions. How much should Elsa tell her though?

“It's a bit hard not to appear as an educational figure to everyone. Compared to me you all lack around one hundred years of experience, nevertheless I want to treat you all as my equals just as I'd like you to treat me. It's already hard enough to see those people I care about grow old and die, I don't want to appear as an eternal parent figure.”

“I-I have to admit that I don't have any experience interacting with people that live... well... forever.”

When TJ didn't continue, apparently deep in thought, Elsa decided to mention a little hope of hers. “Simply don't treat me any different because of my age and my powers.”

“I can't speak for the others, but I'll try”, TJ replied with a smile that Elsa reciprocated. “So... uhm... next question. How do you enjoy your stay and life aboard the ship?”

Another hard question. She had thought about this herself sometime already, most often when lying in her bed, watching the FTL-streamers outside her windows, trying to find sleep. In all cases she had to admit that despite the dangers they were facing she really enjoyed staying on _Destiny_ , she even felt more alive than she had for a long time, even when she had set her foot on _Atlantis_. It felt as if she had been _meant_ to be here, as if _Destiny_ truly was her destiny as Anna had said.

“I like it.” Now it was TJ who raised an eyebrow in response and Elsa held up her hands in defense. “I know, I know, we stumble from one danger into the next and I'm probably the only one besides Rush who thinks so, but I really like it here. It feels as if I belong here, though I can't really tell you why. Maybe it has something to do with genetic memories or something like that.”

“You are indeed one of the first who has said something like that”, TJ said while she noted down Elsa's response.

“What about your powers? You had said after the ice planet that you had problems dealing with them in the past. How is it now? How firm is your control?”

Elsa's breath hitched for a moment. She knew that TJ meant well, but these questions were slowly but surely going into a direction that she didn't like.

“I, uhm, I've learned back in the, uh, 1840s what it takes to control them. They are... well... they are highly dependent on my emotional and physiological state however thus... mishaps _do_ happen here and then, though nowadays mainly small ones.” Elsa didn't see a reason to tell TJ about whatever darkness was brooding inside of her, after all she herself didn't really understand what was going on, so it was better if only she needed to worry about this. Also Anna had said that everything would turn out alright and Elsa tended to trust her younger sister.

* * *

TJ had continued to question Elsa for another half an hour, before the latter was finally able to leave, not sure whether it had been a good idea that she hadn't avoided TJ like half of the crew did. Without any further disturbances she had gone to eat something and finally to sleep.

At the next morning, after a breakfast consisting of the same, boring meal, Eli had asked her to meet with him in the Kino room.

“So, what's up, E-”, she began as she entered the room, but stopped cold when she noticed Lieutenant Scott standing there as well. Was Scott already back from Earth or was this still Colonel Telford? She did a quick check of his posture and most importantly his eyes that were now looking at her and came to the conclusion that it wasn't the Colonel that was standing in front of her, but the real owner of the body. She released a breath of relief that she hadn't known she was holding. While having Telford would have been outright annoying she didn't know what to do with Scott either as their relationship was still strained from the events a few weeks ago. “Oh, hello Lieutenant Scott, what a surprise.”

“I noticed”, the soldier answered.

“Well, I hadn't known whether it was you or Telford. I wouldn't have liked to walk into the latter”, Elsa said while sending a glare at Eli to send the point home.

“I know that you don't like him, so don't give me that look! It's creeping me out!”, Eli exclaimed.

“That's the point of it, you know?”, Elsa said with a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah, anyway. Now that you're both here, look at this.” He held up a PADD in front of him and Elsa and Scott had to come close to Eli so that they could take a look over his shoulders onto the small screen.

“Remind me tomorrow to work on a way to connect the PADDs with our laptops”, Elsa threw in.

Then a window opened on the screen displaying some content in Ancient scripture that made Elsa's eyes widen in surprise. No... this couldn't be!

“What am I looking at?”, Scott asked.

Elsa straightened herself. “Well, if you'd come to the Ancient lessons like I go to your exercises then you might be able to read this”, she deadpanned.

“At least I don't go around and twist other people's arms”, Scott shot back.

“Oh, is that what Spencer told you military guys? Then let me inform you that he had it coming! He treated us civilians like we were the newest recruits, namecalling on us as if we'd be more motivated if he does so. Newsflash it doesn't work that way!”, Elsa spat in response.

“Hey, hey, hey, guys!” Eli had turned around to face his two arguing friends. “I don't know what's going on between you two, but even I noticed that something is wrong for weeks and I want you to stop it! We need to work together here, we are all on the same boat, ehm... ship.”

Elsa blushed red from embarrassment and turned to look away from both Eli and Scott. Eli was right of course. It was absolutely childish how her and Scott were behaving and it didn't help the relations aboard in any way. They were both leading figures of their respective parts of the crew, though Elsa also knew that it was wrong to think of 'they' and 'us' at all. They had to become just one crew to survive this, to find a way home. And the chasm that had formed between her and Scott was the right opportunity to start this process of unification. Despite she still didn't know what exactly had happened back then she knew at least that she hadn't wanted it, that something else within her had acted.

She turned back to look at Scott who was trying not to look at either her or Eli as well. From the corner of her eyes she could see that Eli was still waiting expectantly for them to do something. Elsa reached out her hand towards the Lieutenant who flinched just a little bit.

“Truce?”, she asked and knew she had gotten his attention when he turned to her with a surprised look. Hadn't he expected her to do the first step?

“What?”

Elsa supressed the need to roll her eyes. “I asked whether you'd be okay with a truce?”

“I... uhm...”

“You know... I don't bite.” She used her sweetest smile to calm the bit of fear that was still showing in his eyes.

A few more moments and he visibly deflated and reached for her hand as well.

“Truce.”

“Great!”, Eli exclaimed like a child on Christmas Day. He definitely reminded her of Anna sometime, being totally serious and adult in one moment, but giggly and childish in others. Elsa hoped that the two of them would never meet or she was sure that she wouldn't be able to survive two of that sort at the same time.

Elsa and Scott released each other's hands again, Scott nevertheless sending Elsa an unsure glance. Mentally Elsa sighed. It would probably be quite some time before their relationship is mended again and till then it would stay strained.

“Now what did that PADD say exactly?”, the Lieutenant then asked.

Eli turned the PADD he still held in his hand around for Scott to view and pointed at a location on the screen probably to start on a lengthy explanation on how he had found out what he did. Elsa however decided that it was time for a short and simple answer.

“Rush lied.”

Immediately Eli visibly deflated, letting the hand with the PADD drop down again. Elsa did feel sorry for him, but with news like this they didn't need lengthy explanations that would probably result in Scott getting lost anyway.

“He what?!”, Scott exclaimed.

“The planet that's supposed to exist one year away... he placed it in the database.”

One could clearly see Scott now processing this bit of information. He was gaping for air that he should have enough of anyway and after a few moments he staggered backwards to Eli's bunk to sit down.

These feelings were understandable. After all with the news of the discovery of this new planet not even a day ago the moral seemed to be immediately boosted, Elsa had noticed that much. And now they had to take away that light of hope at the end of the tunnel again, to go back to merely surviving day to day, hoping to find some other way home.

“I'm sorry that I had to tell you this way”, Eli began. “But I only wanted to tell you two first. After all you are more experienced in only telling what is necessary.” He shrugged, but he was clearly accusing not only Elsa, but also the military with Colonel Young as their leader. “It's a pity though that you won't be able to be with your son as soon as we thought.”

 _What?_ “Son?”, Elsa blurted out before she could stop her curiosity.

“Oh, you don't know yet?”, Eli's eyes brightened again. “Yesterday Scott discovered that he had a son with a former girlfriend.”

If looks could kill then Elsa was sure that Eli would have dropped dead right away with the glare Scott was sending his way. She also wondered how this would influence the relationship between Scott and Chloe.

“What did Chloe say?”, Elsa thus asked in a soothing voice.

“That's none of your business”, Scott snapped, but just as he had spoken the last word he noticed what he had just said and more importantly to whom. His eyes widened in fear and something inside of Elsa enjoyed this look, his recoiling.

However she managed to hold in the anger that was building in her, threatening to leash out at the young man again.

“Come again?”, she asked, her voice cold, though at least she was giving him the chance to rectify his words.

“I... uhm... Chloe is... uh... fine with it. I've told her that there's nothing between my former girlfriend and me anymore. Up to now I had thought that she had aborted the child.” Elsa noticed him shuddering, but not because of any action of hers, but probably because he wouldn't have met his son that way yesterday – at least Elsa assumed that Scott had met his child.

Slowly Elsa felt her contained anger ebbing away.

“What's his name?” Elsa's curiosity had gotten the better of her again.

She had asked the right question however as she saw a smile tugging at Scott's lips.

“Matthew. His name's Matthew.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. Scott might think that there is nothing between him and his former girlfriend anymore, but Elsa wasn't so sure about the girlfriend. At least not when she named her son after the father. But she'd drop that for now. Scott wouldn't be able to be with the mother of his child anyway until they've found a way home and till then the relationship between Scott and Chloe should be on stable enough grounds.

Nevertheless he _did_ have a child to care for though.

“Will you try to take care of him when we're back home?” Elsa used the word 'when' on purpose. Even if they had now found out that this ominous planet was only a hoax planted by Rush, an action which hurt Elsa more than she would have wanted to admit.

Lieutenant Scott hesitated a bit before answering. “In a sense I already am. Uhm, at least financially. I've arranged for most of my payments to be transferred to his mother in the hope that she'll be able to care for him more than she's able to now.”

“What's she working as?” She knew she was nosy, but she had to know whether he had messed up yet another woman.

Him blushing wasn't the answer she expected however. Again he hesitated before he answered. “She used to study law, but after my son had been born she dropped out and went... uhm... dancing, if you know what I mean.”

Yes, she knew what he meant. The kind of dancing that could earn one enough money in a night to survive from day to day. This business had existed back in Arendelle as well, at least in some of the darker corners of the city. She had tried to extinguish this when she had been queen, but in the end all she had managed was to improve the situations of the girls – and sometimes the dancers had literally been girls.

“Uhm, Elsa, everything alright?”, Eli asked with concern in his voice.

Elsa raised an eyebrow in response and noticed that both men had taken a few steps away from her, probably to avoid the small storm of snow that had started around her. _Great, just great._ She breathed a few times and waved a hand to vanish the storm again.

“Sorry about that”, she said with a blush. “It's just... when I was queen I had to deal with this kind of business as well. And it wasn't pleasant.” She could see understanding in both pairs of eyes.

“So...”, Eli began after a few moments of silence. “What shall we do about this?” He waved his PADD. “You know after all that I'm not that good with keeping secrets.”

“Well, a fault confessed is half redressed”, Elsa commented with a smirk earning a “Hey!” from Eli in response. “Anyway, I don't know whether we should tell the crew. It gave them hope and who knows, maybe there is indeed a suitable planet in there. In a year much can happen.”

“If we survive that is”, Scott interrupted.

“Thank you, Mister Pessimist”, Elsa said, rolling her eyes. “We should probably tell the Colonel and let him decide what to do.”

“Might be best”, Scott replied. “He should be back soon, he's currently on Earth”, he added.

 _Huh?_ But wasn't his turn already two days ago? Something must have happened if he took over someone else's time. Though then again it had been probably nothing that affected the whole crew as otherwise Eli or Scott would have told her. Nevertheless she'd need to have a serious talk with the Colonel about that if he abused the schedule for his own selfish reasons.

“I've just messaged Caine to inform us when Colonel Young is back”, Eli quipped, having written something on his PADD while Elsa had been in thought. Dr. Robert Caine had been one of the IT technicians back on Icarus base though he hadn't been assigned to her, instead his tasks had been mainly to keep the base and all its computer systems up and running.

* * *

It had taken around an hour before Eli had received a message from Caine that Young had been back and right away Eli, Elsa and Scott moved to intercept their superior.

They had reached one of the larger crossing corridors filled with couches and four corridors connecting to it on each side when Colonel Young came through one of them. Judging by his expression he wasn't in the mood to talk, but they had to do this nevertheless.

“Colonel Young, we need to talk to you”, Elsa began, but the officer brushed her off.

“Not now”, he grumbled and wanted to leave through one of the other corridors that lead to his quarters.

“Rush lied!”, Eli exclaimed while navigating through the couches, immediately getting the Colonel's attention.

“About what now?”, said Young, halfway turning towards the trio.

“The planet, he lied about the planet”, Elsa said, while Eli handed his PADD to Young.

“What?!” Young looked at the contents on the PADD that Elsa had translated from Ancient to English while they had waited for the Colonel to return.

“There is no Icarus like planet one year away, Rush planted it in the datastream we got from the seed ships. Eli checked the real data”, Elsa explained.

She saw Young clenching the fist that didn't hold the PADD, the one with the PADD shaking slightly. If she'd had to guess then Young was nearly exploding at Rush's youngest antics.

“Who knows about this?”, he then asked.

“Only we three”, Scott replied, but then his eyes looked towards the end of the corridor. The eyes of the others followed suit and saw Camille Wray standing there, a notebook clasped in her hands, gaping with an unbelieving expression. She must have heard all of this. After a few moments of the four staring at her she darted away.

“Great, soon enough the whole ship will know”, Young commented.

Elsa shook her head. “I'm not so sure. She might keep up the ruse for a while. Like us, she knows that the need of the many outweighs the need of the few.”

Despite the graveness of the situation Eli immediately grinned at her which Elsa chose to ignore for now.

“Hmm. You might be right. Nevertheless I'll need to have a talk with Rush”, Young said.

“Yeah, we should probably head back to work.” Eli still had this happy grin on his face while he turned around to walk to the Control Interface Room, Scott and Elsa turning with him.

“Uh, Elsa, one moment please”, asked the Colonel.

Elsa stopped and turned back towards her superior. The other two men had stopped as well and looked back.

“Yes, Colonel Young?” Elsa was looking expectantly at Young.

“You two can go on”, Young said towards Eli and Scott who looked at each other for a moment, then at Elsa and then left the room.

“How much do you know about the communication stones?”

Interesting and unexpected question. Elsa had been there on _Atlantis_ when the stones had been encountered a second time – the first one had been back on Earth and had led to the discovery of a new foe, or more precisely to a discovery of _them_ by a new foe – when the Wraith Michael had taken over the body of Dr. Jennifer Keller. They had solved the issue by destroying the stone terminal, but unlike the one on Earth which had been thrown into the unstable vortex of a forming wormhole this one had been salvageable. Without that they wouldn't have been able to communicate with Earth right now and they'd truly be lost. Elsa's involvement hadn't stopped though by merely being part of the endeavor on _Atlantis_ , she had also worked on the development of the new, human made terminal which was done on the city as well. Thus she knew a bit more about the technology, though she definitely wouldn't consider herself an expert – at least she didn't know enough to solve the problem that the connection of the stones was temporarily severed when _Destiny_ entered or left FTL, she had already tried that. Though her suspicion was that their terminals were simply inferior to the Ancient ones, nothing more, nothing less.

“Well, I've worked with the team that developed our terminals, so I know quite a bit more than the average person, though I haven't yet fully grasped the science behind it either”, she said after a moment.

“It will have to do.” He looked around to ensure that the two of them were alone in the corridor and then turned his attention back to Elsa. “I'm sure you're aware that yesterday Lieutenant Scott had switched with Colonel Telford.”

Elsa nodded; after all she had actively avoided Scott's body yesterday.

“The thing is, uhm, this morning Scott came to me and reported that he had strange dreams, namely about my wife, having dinners with her, but he had never met her back on Earth.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow and the gears in her head were turning already, checking through every bit of information she had about the stones and the terminals. She needed to know a bit more however.

“And you think Telford was, uhm, somehow involved with your wife?”

“I've seen them together during my previous scheduled visit. And a few weeks ago, shortly before the attempts to dial Earth, we had swapped during...” Here Colonel Young was blushing and Elsa understood immediately what he meant.

“It's okay, I get it”, she said, putting a hand on the Colonel's arm. Apparently the officer didn't like to talk about such topics.

She remembered the moment Young was talking about. It was when her and Rush had been in the gate room to prepare their simulation and Telford had come around. After _Destiny_ had jumped back into FTL Young had been back in his body for a moment, completely disoriented and somewhere else with his thoughts. And now that she thought about it she remembered Telford playing with Young's ring right after that.

She dropped her arm again. “So your suspicion is that somehow memories of Telford bled into Scott's consciousness or his body?”, Elsa then asked.

“Yes, though so far it only seems to have happened with Telford.”

“Maybe we don't know about the others, because they believe they merely had strange dreams.” Elsa shrugged. “Wouldn't be the first time in history. Nevertheless I think we should check this out just to be sure. I'll put up a notice on the PADDs for others to report such dreams to TJ and I'll brief her about this. What about you though? You had switched with Telford quite some time as well.”

“No, nothing so far. At least not that I'm aware of.”

“Well, we'll keep an eye on it. Anything else?”

Colonel Young shook his head. “No, that's it so far. Good day, Elsa.”

“Good day as well.” She watched as the soldier turned around and left towards his quarters. Considering that Young had just revealed to her that he had seen Telford together with his wife made Elsa suspicious about his reason to use a stone slot that had been scheduled for someone else, but she didn't want to talk about this right now. She'd have to keep an eye on this though. After all a leader with a love triangle isn't necessarily the best option to have in a situation as theirs.

* * *

Despite being in space with no reference for the time of day Elsa knew that it was around midnight with the corridors she sneaked through being empty and the lights dimmed. According to their schedule only one scientist should be stationed in the control room and two soldiers were at the ready next to the gateroom, everyone else was free to rest and most indeed did so.

Elsa walked quietly through the dark corridors, making sure that no one, be it human or Kino saw her sneaking towards her destination.

Glimpsing around the last corner before her destination she noticed one single soldier standing there in the middle of the brightly lit corridor. Not just any soldier though, but Vanessa James. She was standing guard in front of the room Elsa wanted, no needed, to get to. Ever since Eli had told her that the Icarus planet didn't exist earlier that day – only interrupted by the talk with Colonel Young – she had thought about what she could do to improve the situation and every time there was always the same solution: the chair. Yes, she could probably die from this or end up as a babbling, drooling idiot, but she had to do this. She had to try to find a way to get them all home or at least to get full control of the ship. After all the need of the many outweighed the need of the few... or the one. Now the only obstacle between her and doing something stupid was Vanessa. On the one hand Elsa was glad it was her, after all they could be considered friends more or less. They had spent a few meals together in the past few weeks, sometimes also accompanied by Lisa Park or Adam Brody. On the other hand though this could make this whole endeavor even more hurtful. She needed to try to get Vanessa to see her side.

Breathing once Elsa walked around the corner and right away the previously relaxed Lieutenant James righted herself and trained the rifle that had idly hung in front of her right into the direction Elsa was coming from. Once Vanessa had spotted Elsa the soldier's expression went from serious to relieved and finally confused.

“Elsa?” Vanessa lowered her rifle again. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

Elsa walked towards the other woman. “I had quite a bit on my mind and thought that sleep wasn't what I was looking for.” It wasn't exactly the truth, but it wasn't a lie either.

“And so of all places you could have gone to you came here?”, Vanessa asked with a raised eyebrow.

“The arboretum is not yet repaired.” They had instructed the repair robot to repair the transparent cupola of the aboretum they had already found on their first day aboard _Destiny_. Their hope was that they could use that place to grow plants there. At least once the seeds the botanists and hobby gardeners aboard had started to plant in one of the hydroponic labs they had recently found were grown enough. Of course a cupola of potentially fragile transparent material was usually a bad idea on a space ship, especially with said ship's strained shields, but the room was equipped with an iris that would protect the plants in case of a leak – at least once it was repaired, a task Brody was working on.

“But why not the observation deck?”

Elsa didn't have an answer to that. After all the observation deck would have been a much better place to relax and think with this magnificent view out of the window than the chair room. But then again Elsa wasn't here to relax or think, she was here to do something about their situation.

She sighed. “You know exactly why I'm here, Vanessa.”

“I can't let you do that, you know that.” To Vanessa's defense she didn't raise her rifle again, perhaps hoping that she could resolve this without violence. “It's not only my orders, but I can't let you do this as your friend either. Who knows what this thing is going to do with your mind.”

“Don't you think I'm aware of that? But I'm the only one aboard who has even remotely the chance to get in and out of there without any ill side effects.”

“But you aren't sure of that and that's enough of a reason to stop-”

“Vanessa, please.” It was seldom that Elsa was pleading for something, but she wanted to avoid violence as much as Vanessa. Elsa searched the eyes of the much younger woman and saw that she wasn't certain herself, that her resolve to keep Elsa from entering the room was weakening. “I _have_ to do this. It's my destiny.” Of course Elsa wasn't sure whether Anna had meant this when she had told Elsa that the ship was her destiny, but considering that Anna hadn't tried to convince her otherwise until now – and there had been more than enough time for that during Elsa's way from her quarters to the chair room – Elsa assumed that she was doing the right thing.

“I...” That was the moment, Elsa could see it in Vanessa's eyes. Then Vanessa shook her head and looked at Elsa with a weak smile. “Don't make me regret this.”

Elsa gave the other woman a quick hug which was returned. “Thank you.”

“Don't thank me yet”, Vanessa answered after Elsa had broken away again.

The soldier then moved to the side and even opened the door towards the chair room. Just as Elsa moved past Vanessa the latter grabbed Elsa by the arm.

“Take care, please.” Vanessa's eyes were drilling into Elsa's, seeking for a sign that Elsa knew what she was doing, but they both knew that this wasn't the case, that it was just a hunch, a glimmer of hope, nothing more.

Elsa patted the hand that was wrapped around her arm and after a few moments she pealed the hand away. Trying to send the other woman a reassuring smile Elsa entered the chair room and before she could develop any doubts she entered the necessary command sequence in one of the consoles and sat down in the chair. The restraints fastened around her wrists and feet and she could hear the arms with the electrodes that were attached to the headrest snapping into place. There was no turning back now. The electrodes then pressed against her temples. She flinched a bit at the unpleasant feeling, but before she could further elaborate on this she was engulfed by darkness.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, look at that, a cliffhanger - and a diversion from canon for those that care about that. ;)  
> In all honesty I hadn't thought this when I had planned this chapter a few months ago. I had Elsa adhere to Young's orders and have the chair be used some time later. But as you can see I have changed my mind. That chair is simply too tempting and Elsa cares for the crew and their wellbeing and wants to find a way to get all those that don't belong on Destiny back home, risks and orders be damned.
> 
> Next up will be "Identity", an all original chapter. I hope to get it up still in this year. :)


	12. Identity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course I hadn't manage to publish this before the end of the year... *sigh* Why am I even trying?
> 
> Anyway... Happy New Year to everyone! Thank you for all the favs, follows and reviews!
> 
> I got a guest review for Life on FF.net that I'd like to comment on:
> 
> The fight between Rush and Greer might seem intense, but then again we didn't see everything that had happened between the characters. Maybe the two had more run ins along the way? Also Rush is simply frustrated at the way things are working out for him and Greer will of course jump if someone insults his Colonel.  
> I agree that Eli is normally reacting ackwardly around others, but then again Elsa did basically praise his nerdiness, something that no one else aboard has done. And to be honest, I think that reaction is just as ackward for Elsa as Eli's normal reactions are for everyone else. ;)
> 
> Well, let's start of right where we left off. This chapter is a bit different and I hope you like it. :)
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

Elsa awoke with a start, shooting up in her bed, her heart beating wildly. Slowly she took in her surroundings, at least as much as the bit of light from outside allowed her. She was safe and sound in her bedroom in Arendelle. A sound from the other side of the room had her be alarmed for a moment, but only till she realized that it had been the snoring of her baby sister.

With a smile on her lips Elsa thought back on the dream she had. What a strange dream it had been. She didn't remember the details, but she had been on some kind of ship after having survived a catastrophe and together with other people she struggled for survival. She hadn't been royalty then, but... a... scientist. Yeah, that had been the word, though it sounded wrong to her, as if this word itself didn't belong here.

How late was it anyway? She got up and walked over to the window, not really caring to be silent though; after all nothing could wake her sister at this time except the northern lights and perhaps a heap of chocolate held below her nose. Elsa giggled at the thought, a hand shooting up to hide her laughter despite no one being here. A habit that Anna had berated her for, after all Elsa had such a beautiful smile. Anna's words not Elsa's.

She took in the scenery outside of the window, again a smile on her lips at the thought of her sister. The moon was standing high above the horizon, probably the highest it could get in these climes. It was a bit more than half full, thus bathing the area around her home in a silvery light. Aside from that the village was dark, the only light coming from the gas lanterns that led from the village along the stone bridge towards the castle. Oh, wait, she was wrong. There _was_ more light in the village. One building was lit up as far as she could see, at least its ground floor. Judging from the position in the village this was probably the bakery. So it was already past five o'clock in the morning when Becker was already awake.

Well, that was early enough to rise and shine – Anna would disagree of course and cuddle back into her cushion. So Elsa dressed herself in the dim light in comfortable clothes for the day – a violet dress and vest and a navy blue top – and opened her braid to brush her hair. Unlike Anna she had come to the right conclusions in the past and slept with a tight braid instead of leaving her hair open. This way Elsa wouldn't have to fight her bedhead when she could use her time better. She looked at her reflection in the mirror while she guided her brush through her brunette, full hair that was so much like her mother's. She didn't know however from which parent she had gotten her freckles. They were only a few and also not as prominent as Anna's – who had them over her whole body as Elsa knew from various times the two sisters had bathed together – but nevertheless not completely pale either. In the weak moonlight her eyes looked gray, but Elsa knew that she shared her eye color with her sister as well, teal blue.

Elsa redid her braid, applied a few hints of make up and left the room to find something to do till everyone else got up as well and it was time for breakfast.

* * *

The next four hours Elsa had spent in the library, reading books and magazines, mostly about natural philosophy or engineering themes. Especially the latter were interesting as they gave her ideas what they could do to improve the lives of everyone in the castle and the kingdom of Arendelle.

At nine o'clock however she had been informed by none other than Kai, the castle's seneschal that breakfast was ready. On her way out of the library she had asked the head of staff to wake Anna as well, or at least to try it as they both knew that this was an endeavor that could take hours – on the good days.

She reached for the handle of one wing of the double winged door separating the corridor from the small dining room and opened it. Of course they could have had servants that opened the doors for the royals, but her father had always stressed that they – as in the royal family – shouldn't be too decadent, they were all only human after all.

As she had expected Elsa wasn't alone at the breakfast table. Her parents were already sitting there, her father at the front end of the table, her mother to his left – at least as seen from Elsa's place. After closing the door again she moved towards the right side of the table where already two table sets were prepared for her and her sister – a mere gesture of good will that Anna might happen to fall out of bed in time. Once Elsa reached the table her parents looked up, her mother with a smile, a fork with a piece of bread and salmon in her hand, her father – here Elsa had to suppress a giggle – with his cheeks full with whatever, trying to smile at her without opening his mouth. He and Anna definitely had more in common than just their hair color. Though Anna did not yet have the sensitivity in which situations she could fool around and which she couldn't, their father however did. Trying to push her father's funny face out of her mind, Elsa curtseyed.

“Papa, Mama, good morning.”

“Good morning, Elsa, dear”, her mother responded first after quickly glancing at her husband who was still incapable of saying anything.

Then King Agdar quickly swallowed – so he had just drunken a too large gulp of either coffee or juice and then greeted his eldest daughter as well.

“Good morning, Elsa. Up and around as usual, I see.”

Elsa smiled while she took her seat. “Of course, Papa. I have to prepare myself to be a good queen after all.”

“Yes, yes, good.” Her father turned back to his breakfast.

“But don't overdo it, love. You're only eighteen yet and it will be many years till you'll have to take over the kingdom. Enjoy your freedom while it lasts”, her mother added with a smile.

Her father pointed his fork at his wife while looking at Elsa. “What she said”, he said, his mouth already filled with some bite.

“Yes, Mama, Papa.” Elsa nodded towards both her parents each to show them her thankfulness for their advice.

“Oh, before I forget it”, her father began after he had emptied his mouth again. “Don't forget that this afternoon you and Anna will have to be there to greet the guests with us.”

The ball! She had nearly forgotten! Internally Elsa groaned, she disliked standing around for hours, greeting guest after guest that she didn't really know, but she didn't let it show. “Of course. I'll ensure that we both will be there.”

And then there was of course the problem that their parents tried to find possible suitors for her and Anna. While both parents supported the idea of their daughters marrying out of love they _did_ try to present an ever new array of possible candidates for them. Elsa honestly didn't have much hope for Anna though. Ever since she had been rescued from one of her reckless trips to the mountains a few months ago by an ice harvester – Kristopher? – and his... uhm... reindeer her sister only had eyes for him, despite him being a commoner. The two hadn't done anything yet – Anna was only fifteen after all – but their father didn't mind per se. Nevertheless he at least tried to present someone... more suitable for his younger daughter. With Elsa he tried harder however. It astounded her that he hadn't yet tried to simply have all potential suitors of the world line up in front of her. Probably because she would simply said “Next” to each and every one of them. She had just no interest in men. Women however... that was a totally different topic.

Elsa nearly blushed when she thought back at an accident Anna had with one of the maids. Her sister – unaware of the surroundings as was often the case – had run around a corner only to run into a maid that had carried a bucket of water for cleaning the windows. Elsa had followed close behind Anna and when she had turned the corner as well Anna had been lying on top of the maid and the contents of the bucket had been spilled across the poor woman below. That of course had the unintended effect that the linen shirt of the maid – she was around Elsa's age – had become totally see through, leaving nothing to the viewer's – in this case Elsa's – imagination. It had cost her quite an effort to not bolt into her own room to... uhm... help herself find release.

Their parents didn't know about their eldest daughter's sexual orientation however. And Elsa didn't know whether she even wanted them to know. Their reaction could range from rejection to her father simply changing tactics and presenting every available princess of the world to Elsa. It was too much of a gamble for her.

* * *

“Elsa, please.” Anna stretched out the “please” much more than was healthy, looking at Elsa with big, round eyes. Her younger sister had decided around eleven o'clock that it was time to start the day and while Elsa was already with her tutors learning about history and the fine art of leading a country – today's topic: dealing with politicians – Anna had a quick breakfast in the kitchen before she had gone to her tutors as well.

After the two sisters had shared lunch with their mother they had some time to themselves before the guests would arrive and Anna had the idea that the two of them just had to play something. Of course with Anna the term “play” usually contained something reckless as well and more often then not it as was Elsa's task to pull the chestnuts out of the fire, sometimes even literally.

“Okay, okay”, Elsa appeased her younger sister. As oblivious to dangers as her sister sometimes was Elsa knew that it was just as hard to resist the young strawberry-blonde. “I'll play with you.”

“Yay!”, Anna exclaimed and threw her arms around Elsa's neck. “You're the bestest big sister in the world!”

Elsa had long since given up correcting her sister's mistakes regarding superlatives. Especially since if Anna _wanted_ she could use them correctly, but more often than not she simply didn't care.

“Well, I'm your only one.” With a smirk on her face she poked Anna into her side, causing the younger sibling to give a jerk and to jump backwards, literally.

“Elsa! You know I'm ticklish!” Anna crossed her arms and her mouth turned into a pout. Especially the later was what Elsa had hoped for. Her baby sister simply looked too cute for her own good with that.

“I know. That's why I did it.” Elsa shrugged. “Anyway, do you have anything specific planned? And don't forget that we need to welcome the guests to the ball later on together with our parents so nothing that takes us too far away from the castle.”

“Oh, right, the ball. I totally forgot about that. But I'm sooo looking forward to it! I wonder how many suitors Papa has come up with this time. At least we'll be able to enjoy the dance.” Here Anna eyes turned into a dreamy gaze and nearly started to dance to some imaginary music if Elsa hadn't interrupted.

“Oh? And here I thought you already had _your_ suitor picked out? That ice harvester that saved you? Kristopher?”

“First of it's Kristoff and second we're not yet that official. Also he doesn't dance, but I plan to this evening!” Anna's wide smile sure was contagious. “And regarding playing... what about...” Anna moved closer towards Elsa, then, as Anna was close enough she quickly reached out and touched Elsa's arm only to dart away quickly.

“Tag! You're it!”, the girl shouted while she turned a corner.

Elsa shook her head with a smile. So a game of tag it was.

“I'll get you!”, she shouted and sprinted after her younger sibling.

* * *

The two sisters had played for nearly an hour before they found themselves sitting on top of one of the castle's housetops. At least one of those that were easily reachable, not that this would have stopped Anna in any way, but it definitely helped to calm Elsa's worries. From there they looked out onto the harbor that connected Arendelle with the rest of the world. Well, not entirely as there were still some land routes that were used in winter when the fjord was covered in ice, but for the majority of the year the trade by sea was the heartbeat of the kingdom.

With the upcoming ball the harbor was even busier than usual. Ships from all over the world – or at least from around their kingdom – came into the harbor to deliver dignitaries, representatives and ambassadors only to turn around and anchor themselves to a free place in the wide fjord.

Most of the ships that the two sisters were seeing where magnificent sailing ships in various sizes. The smallest vessels with only one mast probably belonged to the local fishermen and traders while the largest had three masts with a large array of sails which hadn't even dared to navigate into the harbor because of its size. Instead the guests they brought to the kingdom were ferried using smaller boats.

Elsa also spotted two steamboats, a recent invention she had only read about until now. To imagine that hot water could be used to power a ship across the ocean or a carriage along two tracks of metal – rails she reminded herself – was simply breathtaking. What else would be possible with this? But one would definitely need to work on the aesthetic of the ships till then. One of the ships looked like someone had merely added a chimney to a sailing ship while the other looked like an ugly metal behemoth. The former ship had the elegance of the base ship disrupted, while the latter could not even dare to ask for an ounce of elegance considering all its hard corners and edges.

That the full metal steamship belonged to the kingdom of Weselton did not help in any way. Its representative, the Duke of Weasel-, ehm... Weselton, who had been in Arendelle on each and every occasion her father had invited to always dared to think that _he_ and _his kingdom_ were Arendelle's closest partners in trade. _Hah! As if... If he only knew how unimportant he was._ Though of course Elsa knew that the goods they received from Weselton were not negligible and it would definitely not be good to loose them as partners. Elsa was glad that the Duke's children were already married otherwise she would have probably needed to defend herself against them as well.

“Hey, Elsa?” Anna had been quiet for the past quarter of an hour the two sisters had spent on the rooftop and honestly Elsa had been amazed that it had been so long. Normally her sprightly sister couldn't be quiet for more than five minutes and that was already asking for much and usually contained bribery with chocolate, preferably from Elsa's highly valuable private stash. How Anna had learned about it in the first place still puzzled Elsa, though Anna had always said that she had a good nose for chocolate, literally.

“What is it, Anna?”, asked Elsa and looked at her younger sibling with a wide smile.

“What's that?” Anna pointed with her hand out at the ocean. At first Elsa didn't see what Anna had meant, but then she noticed a sparkling dot far out on the ocean and it seemed to come closer and it seemed to do so fast. She blinked a few times and wondered how Anna had seen that so much earlier than Elsa, but then she remembered that Elsa spent her time inside with books while Anna was mostly outside. Elsa had already noticed that her ability to look into the distance had declined, but that it had been that bad already...

“I have no id-”, Elsa started to say, but while she said it she had become able to make out the general shape of that unknown object. “Wait. I think it's a ship.”

“But it doesn't look like one?”

Yes and no. It definitely didn't look like any of the ships that were bopping up and down in the fjord. It had no sails and there were also no clouds of smoke. And it's hull seemed to consist of three bodies instead of only one.

“What else could it be, Anna? It looks artificial and no whale would be that fast and reflective anyway.”

These reflections were another topic. It nearly seemed that the whole top of the ships was coated in glass and the remainder was made of smooth metal.

The two sisters continued to look at the approaching ship in silence, each of them deep in thought, well, at least Elsa was. She didn't know what exactly her sister was thinking. It could range anywhere from the ship to the sandwiches she might eat this evening.

The ship had now reached the entry of the fjord and Elsa's suspicions were indeed confirmed. It's hull indeed consisted of three bodies, a large hull in the center and two smaller ones at the sides with a bit of space to the main hull, connected to the latter with bridges. All three bodies consisted of smooth, shiny metal while the superstructure on the central body was a mixture of metal and glass. And the glass was curved!

While the ship gracefully glided into the harbor Elsa couldn't help but wonder how the ship moved if there weren't any sails or a steam engine. Also there was the question whom this wonder belonged to. She had thought about this the last few minutes and as far as she knew there was only one nation – she dared to even say ally – which had gone through these technical advances in the past years. And looking at the ship she could indeed see the insignia of that nation: an upturned V with a smaller circle on top.

Yes, the Alterans had arrived.

* * *

Elsa had dragged Anna back to their room in time to get dressed up for the introduction of the dignitaries and now they were standing next to the throne of her father. King Agdar was sitting in it while Queen Idunn was standing to his left and Elsa and Anna were standing next to each other on his right, with Elsa standing closer to the throne than Anna, symbolizing that it was Elsa who was the heir with Anna being the spare. Though everyone in the family tried their hardest so that Anna wouldn't feel that she was just the spare. They were all family and no one would be left behind or forgotten only because she wasn't born first.

“Princes Lars and Hans Westergaard of the Southern Isles!”, announced Kai from his position next to the double winged doors.

They weren't the first dignitaries that he had announced this afternoon and they wouldn't be the last. Though Elsa had stopped counting after she had reached 17; and that had been a couple of announcements ago.

The door wings opened and admitted entry to two tall men – at least Elsa assumed they looked taller than her. Right now she was looking down to them as the royal family was situated on a raised dais.

Despite not caring for men like that at all even Elsa had to admit that the two princes looked dashing – and Anna seemed to agree with her if her caught breath was any indication. Both were wearing white suits that looked more like parade uniforms than suits with all those various medals and insignia – Prince Lars having more of them than Prince Hans; then however Elsa knew that Lars was the older of the two brothers. The flow of their white pants was interrupted by black boots.

Both men had angular faces, with Prince Hans' face being framed by sideburns while Prince Lars was wearing a full beard, albeit neatly trimmed.

After the two men had reached the dais – in a respectable distance of course – they both bowed until Elsa's father started to speak.

“Prince Lars, Prince Hans, welcome to Arendelle. I hope you had safe travels.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty”, Prince Lars answered. “The travels have indeed been safe, after all we have come on one of our latest steamboats.”

Elsa suppressed a snicker and from the corner of her eyes she could see that Anna wasn't faring better. Now she knew whom the second steamboat belonged to. It had been ugly, especially once they had witnessed the arrival of that Alteran beauty.

“Our methods of travel will be revolutionized by this, I'm sure”, her father said. “Anyway, your father is a good friend of mine and I hope your time here will be worth it.”

Both princes bowed again and while they did so Elsa's father sent her a meaningful glance. Elsa knew exactly what he was trying to say with that, but she chose to ignore that.

Prince Lars and Prince Hans left the throne room through the doors they had come through, just like the dignitaries before them had. And just like before there was a break before Kai would announce the next group.

“Those Southern Isles princes surely look dashing”, Queen Idunn said, looking around her husband directly towards her daughters. Elsa immediately recognized the gleam in her mother's eyes, similar to the glance that her father had sent her moments ago. The meaning was clear: if she'd pick one of those as her suitor, she'd have her parents' blessing. But Elsa didn't want any of this.

“If you say so, Mama.”

Elsa noticed that Kai stiffened and that was the signal that he'd announce the next group now.

“Vice president Janus Tempora of the Alteran Republic and his entourage.”

It was strange. All the countries around Arendelle were monarchies, ruled by Kings and old traditions. But there was this one country that had decided to try something different and they were prospering more than most royals had wanted to admit. The Alteran Republic had come into existence around twenty years ago, after the country had abolished all monarchs and all nobility. Their leaders were elected every few years and they had something that they called the division of power, a concept that avoided the concentration of too much power in own person or institution. Elsa knew from her parents and her tutors that they hadn't believed that something like this would last as long as it did, but all the advances that young nation had made in the past decade – both humanitarian and technological – had proved them all wrong so far. They had successfully reduced poverty and crimes and every child no matter the heritage was able to enjoy an unrivaled education. Something that Arendelle had only started to address mere years ago, of course after the success that the Alteran Republic was having with it.

The double winged doors opened and admitted entrance to an old man in his late forties. Grey hair was already showing itself in the otherwise dark brown one, supported by the white and grey robes he was wearing. A style that Elsa knew was common in Alteran society. His eyes however told the story of a fulfilled life and a smart mind. From what Elsa knew the Vice President was one of the people responsible for the technological advancements of his nation.

However it was the person walking slightly behind him that let Elsa loose her composure. The person was a young woman, around Elsa's age, dressed in similar robes as the man beside her, but yet they were able to accentuate the features of her body. Her long, brown hair was flowing down around her face in waves. But what stood out the most of the slightly oval and definitely cute face were the eyes. They not only showed more wisdom and maturity than in most other eyes that Elsa had seen in her life, but their intense amber color, bordering more on a bright yellow than a golden shimmer had Elsa mesmerized right away.

Elsa felt a nudge from her side.

“Psst, Elsa”, her younger sister whispered. “It's normally my job to gape at our guests.”

Right away Elsa closed her mouth that she hadn't noticed was open and while blushing she noticed that the unequal pair had already reached the dais. What didn't help her embarrassment in any way however was the look the Alteran woman was giving her. It was a knowing smile, but it wasn't at all unfriendly and Elsa wanted to see more of it.

Once the two visitors had reached the dais the vice president bowed while his companion curtseyed.

“Mr. Tempora, welcome to Arendelle”, the King began “May I ask who that dashing entourage of yours is?”

Did her father really glance at her when he said “dashing” or had Elsa imagined that?

“Of course, Your Majesty.” The old man turned a bit to the side and gestured at the woman next to him. “May I introduce my daughter, Destiny.” The young woman curtseyed again upon the introduction.

_Destiny... what an odd name. And yet, for some reason it fits her._ Elsa couldn't tell however why she thought so.

* * *

The evening and thus the opening of the ball and more importantly – at least for Anna – the buffet arrived quickly. Unlike during the greetings at the afternoon the royal family was freely mingling with their guests. Servants hurried through the crowd of people to cater for every need the guests might have while guards posted along the walls made sure that there wouldn't be any troubles.

Elsa could see her parents talking with different sets of dignitaries while her sister didn't stray far from the table with the chocolate fondue. While Elsa herself talked with the various dignitaries as well she tried to avoid anyone who could possibly fall into the category of suitors. That around twenty minutes ago the dance floor had been opened by her parents didn't help this in any way with Elsa declining each and every offer to dance.

She just wanted to grab for a flute of champagne out of frustration when a voice from behind interrupted her, a female voice. Elsa turned around and found herself looking into two amber, nearly yellow eyes. Elsa startled before she recognized the person the eyes and logically the voice belonged to, the daughter of the Alteran vice president, Destiny.

“I'm sorry, Your Highness, I didn't want to startle you.”

“It's okay, nothing happened”, Elsa said, immediately playing down her reaction. “It's not as if I'd spread ice or something when I'm startled.” _Where did that thought come from?_

Destiny chuckled and it was the cutest sound Elsa had ever heard. At least that was what she thought. Elsa took the moment to take in the sight before her. Destiny's hair that had been open this afternoon was elaboratly styled with the main bulk of it collected in an updo, but with single strains hanging out of it. It seemed a bit disheveled, rebellious and yet noble at once. Unlike the robes during the meeting she now wore a silvery dress that seemed like mercury with all the reflections and the appearance of fluid motion. The bodice was simple without any embroidery and two should straps. The cleavage was moderate, nevertheless the bodice itself hugged Destiny's body more than enough and accentuated the breasts – though Elsa noticed that they were less than hers. The lower part of the dress was a skirt of the same material, but instead of hugging the wearer tightly like the bodice it did the exact opposite. It was a wide skirt, with many folds and Elsa imagined that when Destiny turned it would look like the fabric orbiting around her.

“That is true, Your Highness.” Destiny brought Elsa out of her observations and reached out her hand. “May I ask you for a dance?”

Without even thinking twice about the question and more importantly about the social implications of her actions – both that she had declined various other offers during the evening and that she was now asked by a woman no less – Elsa accepted the invitation and the hand and found herself led to the area where various other couples where dancing.

When the two women reached their destination Elsa wondered for a moment why she was doing this, why this woman had managed to lure her out onto the dance floor, something that various others before her had failed at. And then there was of course the question who of the two would lead.

“Since I asked you, it's only fair that I lead”, Destiny said with a wink, reading Elsa's thoughts and reached with her right hand around Elsa's torso and placed the hand on the shoulder blade of her dance partner while she entwined the fingers of her left hand with those of Elsa's right. And just as Elsa had learned she placed her own left hand on the other woman's right arm.

Gently Elsa felt herself swayed left and right before she was lead into the waltz the band was playing. Elsa closed her eyes and enjoyed the moves she and her dance partner were doing, completely trusting Destiny that she would steer the Princess clear of any other couples that might be in the way. Though where this trust for the stranger came from, Elsa did not know.

Once the music ended, Elsa opened her eyes and looked around. Right away she wished that she hadn't done it as she noticed that her and Destiny were the only ones on the dance floor, all other pairs had moved to the side of the circle and instead watched the pair of two women curiously.

Oh no, what had she done? Her face turned a crimson red, not only from the exhaustion from the dancing, but more importantly from the shame and embarrassment she was feeling right now. Had she really just danced with another woman?

Only then Elsa noticed that she was still held by Destiny and took a step back, out of the other woman's embrace.

“I take it you don't want to have another dance then?”, Destiny asked with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, unlike the one she had during the introduction in the afternoon. Instead Elsa noticed rejection in them and disappointment.

“I... uhm...” Elsa looked around, trying to find the faces of her family, her father, her mother... her sister. Trying to find out whether they considered her a disgrace for the kingdom, that she had let herself go just like that. She only found Anna's face however and the smile her baby sister had on her face told her everything. _Ah, screw it, I'm already out here._

Elsa stepped closer towards Destiny again. “On the contrary.” She looked into the direction that she knew the band was playing at. “Another song, please.”

_Being part of the host family has its perks_ , Elsa mused and got into dance position again, her dance partner taking her with a smile.

Despite the curious or cautious reaction of the other pairs Elsa surely enjoyed herself. The foreign body in front of her made her feel warm and she felt safe in the woman's arms.

After some more dances – the young women had been joined by other pairs again after the first dance – Elsa had gone out with Destiny onto one of the balconies. Elsa closed the painted glass doors so the two would at least have a bit of privacy.

Destiny was leaning onto the railing of the balcony, looking out onto Arendelle which was bathed in the last rays of sunlight. Elsa joined her at her side, but didn't look at the town, but the woman beside her.

“So, tell me, why did you pick me of all possible people in there?” It was a question she wanted to ask from their first dance on.

A smile appeared on Destiny's face, albeit a mischievous one. “Who else should I have picked? I can't just go and ask one of the men for a dance, that would have been against etiquette. And all the other women are not in the right range of age.”

_Oh? That's it._ Elsa was surprised at that answer, maybe a bit disappointed as well. She had enjoyed the dance more than she wanted to admit, but finding out that her dance partner – a beautiful one no less – only picked her for some mundane reasons stung a bit. Though than again Destiny _had_ picked a woman, her, so maybe Elsa could salvage this somehow.

“And because you're special”, Destiny added after the few seconds that Elsa had spent in her thoughts. The amber eyes now looked directly at Elsa. “And I don't mean you as heir to Arendelle, no. I mean something more, something you're not aware of right now.”

Destiny reached out with her hand, caressing Elsa's cheek. For a moment Elsa wanted to flinch back, but as she felt the hand upon her face she couldn't help but feel safe and comfortable.

“You are the key, Elsa, don't forget that.”

“K-key?”, Elsa stammered. “Key for what?”

With her hand still on Elsa's cheek Destiny responded with a wide smile. “Everything.”

Then she leaned forward and let her lips meet Elsa's. Elsa was too stunned to react and she didn't have to since the kiss only lasted for a few, short seconds, seconds that Elsa couldn't help but immediately long for after the other woman distanced herself again.

“But more importantly, you are the key to my heart.” With that Destiny moved to the door and left Elsa standing alone on the balcony.

It took a few moments for Elsa to process what just had happened, her fingers tracing along her lips. She was trying to recall what she had felt when Destiny had kissed her, but she couldn't. Her imagination couldn't even come close to the real thing, the real lips.

And what had Destiny meant about Elsa being a key for everything?

* * *

Elsa was walking towards her father's study. Though it was more her feet carrying her by themselves than her consciously walking as her thoughts were still focused on the events of the ball the previous night.

After their little chat on the balcony Elsa hadn't seen Destiny anymore once she had returned to the ball. She would have welcomed the other woman's company especially since she now had to find a completely new set of excuses for the potential suitors after she had shown that she was indeed capable of dancing. As soon as protocols had allowed she had thus excused herself from the ball and instead went to her bedroom.

This morning she hadn't seen any of the dignitaries around – they were probably still sleeping – but her father had called for her right after breakfast which she had spent alone.

Arriving at the door that separated the corridor from King Agdar's study she wondered whether he wanted to talk to her about her strange behavior the previous day, especially her dancing with another woman. Tentatively she knocked at the massive, wooden door that was decorated with carvings of patterns and plants.

“Come in”, came the muffled answer of her father.

Elsa entered the study, quietly closing the door behind her. Of course it wasn't the first time she was in her fathers study, but she found it mesmerizing each and every time. The shelves of books that lined two of the four walls, the pendulum clock that stood next to the door and showed with its constant rhythm how time was flowing by and of course the massive desk that stood at the far side of the room. A desk behind which her father sat in a comfortable chair.

Her father looked up from a document he was currently reading and once he noticed his daughter he put down both the paper and the reading glasses that had been resting on his nose. With a smile he gestured for her to sit down in one of the two chairs that stood in front of the desk. From experience Elsa knew that they were less comfortable than the one her father was sitting in, but not by much. After all the King wanted visitors to feel comfortable and welcome in his study. Those he didn't welcome normally wouldn't see the study from the inside anyway.

“So, tell me, Elsa.” Elsa mentally winced at the choice of words of her father, the same she had chosen the day before to address Destiny. Like father, like daughter it seemed. “Why is it that all men your age that I met yesterday complained to me that you had rejected their invitations to dance with them and yet we saw you gliding over the dance floor with the daughter of the Alteran vice president?”

The young woman studied her father's face or at least she tried to as he was wearing a neutral mask, not even remotely betraying an emotion that she could use to steer the upcoming discussion into a positive direction.

“I... uhm... Her offer was more polite than the men's”, she offered, hoping that her father would not probe too much.

“More polite, hmm? Somehow I doubt that any of the men were anything less than polite.”

Of course her father was right. They had all been polite in asking her to dance, but could she really tell her father that she wasn't interested in them in the slightest? That she preferred women? And thus of course instinctively jumped at the opportunity to be asked by one, not even once thinking about the consequences?

“But only on the surface, Papa. In the end they all want the same, a kingdom to rule and an obedient wife. With me as heir to Arendelle's throne they would of course think that I'm easy prey, but here's where they err. I'm not going to be someone's trophy wife. The line must be drawn here. This far and no further!” Only when she had finished her rant did Elsa notice that she had gotten louder and in the company of her father no less who sat in his chair and looked slightly taken aback by the choice of words and volume of his elder daughter.

“I'm sorry, Papa, I didn't mean to yell at you”, Elsa said, cheeks burning from embarrassment of her outburst.

Her father held up a hand to stop any further comment.

“It's... understandable. You have every right to be upset though I would advice you not to raise your voice like this in a public setting. I'm going to tolerate this only in here while it's only family. Do you understand, my dear?”

Elsa nodded. “Yes, Papa.”

“Good.” He smiled at her again. “Now this explains why you have problems with the men who want to court you. But it still doesn't explain why you accepted young Ms. Tempora as a dancing partner. Is there anything else you want to add?”

Elsa was taken aback. Did her father know about her sexual orientation, or at least suspect it? But could she tell him about it? Would he reject her as his daughter and the heir? She hadn't even told Anna about it yet and she wondered what her sister's thoughts about the events at the ball were. Then again she _had_ smiled at Elsa after the first dance. But Anna would tackle her soon enough – at least once her little sister had decided to leave her bed – while her father was sitting right in front of her and was waiting for an answer whatever it might be. It was tempting to confess what was going on with her, but it was just as tempting that there was nothing else, that she had just acted out of the moment.

“Elsa”, her father said once her silence had gone on for a few seconds, “You know that your mother and I both love you and will always do so no matter what you decide in your life? I'm here for you and I won't judge you. I'm your father and I want you to be happy.”

If her father wanted to tip the scales of her inner tumult he had managed it. Tears started to flow down her cheeks upon the display of parental love in front of her.

“I- I like women”, she finally said in a small voice, not looking at her father, but instead at the floor. “I love them, I fancy them, their curves, their demeanor, they are much more preferable than men.”

Once Elsa was quiet again for a few seconds she heard movement from the other side of the desk. The chair was moved, but she didn't dare to look up, frightened to see the rejection in her father's eyes that just moments before he had said wouldn't come. But wasn't she a freak, an abomination, a monster for what she was?

When she felt strong arms around her body she stiffened at first, before she broke out in tears and let herself sink into her father's breast.

“Shh...” A hand was petting her hair. “It's okay. You are a brave woman and I'm proud of you.” A kiss on her scalp. “As I said your mother and I will always love you no matter what.”

* * *

Elsa had to fight hard to suppress a yawn, or multiple ones. The endless dronings of the Minister of Finance's assistant, Eli Wallace about the current taxes were very taxing all by themselves and looking around her she could see that the other members of the council didn't fare any better. From her father's tales she knew that the minister himself wasn't any more exciting, but with him being ill his assistant had taken his place for now and he was definitely the most boring person Elsa had met to date. At least when said person was reciting financial reports transaction for transaction.

To be honest Elsa had imagined her first council meeting that she was leading in place of her father to be different. Her parents had left a few days ago for a meeting in the Alteran Republic, a consequence of talks with Vice President Tempora during the ball around a month ago and had decided that it was time for Elsa to rule in their stead. At least as far as she was able to, which included council meetings.

She took the time to take in the people around the table. Two were looking the least bored, but that was probably due to their military training. That was General Young for once, the commander of Arendelle's army and indirectly also of the Royal Guards, though they had their own leader in the person of Captain Scott, who wasn't part of the council meeting today since he had accompanied her parents on their travel. Albeit Elsa and Anna both liked General Young very much – he always gave them treats when they were younger – the same couldn't be said about the other military person in the room. Admiral Telford was the commander of Arendelle's navy and in the past Elsa had been truly frightened by his lustful eyes. Nowadays she merely resented him. Though she definitely didn't like to talk with him.

The civilian members of the council were much more approachable than the Admiral however. There was Ms. Wray, the mayor of the town of Arendelle. The woman put the good of the town's people before anything, something that Elsa admired.

Another admirable woman was Ms. Johansen. As the castle's physician she had to deal with the healthcare not only of the royals and the other people living in the castle, but of the whole kingdom, though she of course had other people to help her with that, both in- and outside of the castle. Like Wray she always put the well-being of others to the front, though in a slightly different sense.

Whom Elsa was a bit skeptical of was the principal of Arendelle's sole university, Nicholas Rush. Her father had told her more than once that sometimes he was more interested in his own good and that of his research than that of the scientific community of Arendelle as a whole. Right now however he looked just as bored as she did, if not even more so.

The ministers of foreign affairs and of trade were both absent without any replacement as they were part of the entourage of Elsa's parents just like the captain of the guard. At least she had less reports to worry about this way.

She suppressed a smirk as she thought about _how_ bored her sister Anna would probably be. She'd probably slouch in her chair and not even do the slightest to fight any yawn. Of course Elsa knew that her sister wasn't stupid, far from that, but Anna definitely wasn't the most patient person on this planet or even the kingdom.

The thought of her sister made her feel warm and loved however. A few hours after Elsa's talk with her father the day after the ball she had been tackled by Anna and the young woman seemed to have known exactly what was going on. With multiple hugs she had assured her elder sibling that she'd always be there for her and if she needed anything Elsa would know who to call. Anna for sure was an amazing sister and Elsa was proud to have her.

A knock on the door interrupted both Elsa's thoughts as well as young Mr. Wallace's monologue. It took a moment for Elsa to notice that everyone was waiting for her to bid the person waiting outside into the room.

“Come in.”

One of the door wings opened and Kai, the castle's seneschal entered the room, placing himself in front of the other, closed door wing. He bowed.

“Your Highness, Ministers, I bid to excuse the intrusion, but Ms. Tempora from Alteran just arrived and asks for a meeting with Her Highness at the utmost urgency.”

_Destiny is here?_ For a moment a similar warmth as the one for Anna filled Elsa's abdomen, but it vanished as quickly as it came when she began to wonder _why_ exactly the young woman came here. Needless to say that she didn't like the outcome of that thought.

A few moments passed before she became aware that the attention of everyone was turned to her again.

She cleared her throat. “Send her to the Queen's study, please, I'll be there right away”, she said towards Kai. The man bowed and left the room while Elsa eyed the ministers.

“Gentlemen, my ladies, I hope you'll understand that given the circumstances it is necessary to interrupt the meeting. May I suggest that we continue at a later time today?”

* * *

The Council had agreed – probably they had wanted a break just as badly – and now Elsa was standing in front of her mother's study. As heir apparent she could have send her guest to the King's study, but this didn't feel right to her. She wasn't the King, her father was and it would be so for years to come, right?

She opened the door, entered the room and while she was closing the door again she was taking in the sight of the form in front of her, standing between the door and the chair in front of her mother's desk. Destiny was dressed in similar robes as the one she had worn during her arrival last time, though she looked much more disheveled and hastened than then and her yellow eyes emitted a sadness that Elsa hadn't expected to see in her and that she wished more than anything to relief her off.

The young woman curtsied. “Your Highness, thank you for receiving on such a short notice.”

“Please, it's Elsa while we're in private.”

A weak smile passed Destiny's face. “Thank you, Elsa. It's Destiny for you as well.”

Normally Elsa should have sat herself behind the desk before starting to talk with a foreign dignitary, but she didn't feel like having a desk – even if it was smaller than her father's – between her and Destiny, a feeling she knew by now exactly were it came from.

“Let me come to the reason of my presence right away. I'm sure that you're aware that your parents were invited to our nation for talks about technological help.”

Elsa nodded while Destiny looked in thought. One of her hands combed through her long, brown hair, maybe a nervous reaction, just like Anna biting her lip a lot.

Finally Destiny sighed. “There's no other way to tell you that, so I'll be bland: Your parents never arrived.”

Those four words stopped any of Elsa's thoughts right away, the bad vibes she had felt before entering the study hitting her like one of those steamboats on full speed.

“No”, she breathed.

“When your parents' ship didn't arrive on schedule we sent out our own ships to search for them. We found their ship a days journey away from our coast.” Destiny paused for a moment, looking away from Elsa. “Or at least what was left of it. There were no bodies, only parts of the ship.”

No, no, no, it couldn't be, it had not to be. Elsa slung her arms around her midst, trying to keep herself calm, but she failed.

“You're lying!”, she yelled. It had been the first thought that came to her. Somewhere deep in her mind she knew that Destiny had no reason to lie, but what did Elsa care about the deeps of her mind right now?

Destiny took a few steps forwards and reached up to take Elsa's face in her hands and looked straight into the latter's eyes.

“I'm not lying and you know that, Elsa. I wouldn't have come all the way here if it wouldn't be serious. My father had wanted that _I_ tell you what had happened to your parents and not some unknown messenger. And I wanted to tell you as well, because I care for you.”

Elsa couldn't hold it back anymore. She threw her arms around the woman in front of her, resting her head on the other's shoulder and began to weep. Through the mist that began to cloud her mind she noticed how Destiny closed her arms around her back and petted her hair.

The two women stood this way for quite some time, at least several minutes while Elsa slowly organized everything in her head. The council had to be informed, a funeral, or more likely a memorial service had to be arranged. Her own preparations to become the Queen of Arendelle had to be started. And... _Oh Gods. I have to inform Anna._

Slowly Elsa released the grip she had onto the other woman.

“Thank you, for being the one who told me.”

Elsa meant this. She was glad that it was a familiar face and one she liked in addition to that who had told her the news.

“Will you... Will you stay for the memorial service?”

Destiny's hand reached up again and cupped Elsa's face and Elsa leaned into it, enjoying the physical contact of someone, but more importantly the emotional support this contact was giving her.

“Of course. I was given enough time to help you and your sister with your grief so that you two can help your kingdom.”

Destiny hadn't probably meant it that way, but slowly Elsa became aware of the notion that now, indeed it was _her_ kingdom. She would be Queen, the ruler of their people. She shook her head. She would have enough time to worry about this. For now she had to inform Anna of their parents' fate.

“I have to talk to Anna”, she said and turned towards the door.

“Wait.” A hand had caught her wrist. “There's... there's something else I want to tell you.”

Elsa turned back and looked at the other woman, raising an eyebrow. Not more bad news hopefully?

Destiny leaned forward and towards Elsa's ear.

“It's time for you to wake up”, Destiny whispered.

_What?_ Elsa stood there dumbfounded. What was that supposed to mean? She looked at Destiny with expectant eyes, but as she was about to ask her about that strange sentence she noticed how her vision began to fade. The walls of the study had lost their color and soon the outlines followed, turning her vision into a gray mist. It wasn't long before only Destiny was visible in front of her.

The woman reached for Elsa's hands.

“Elsa, remember who you are.”

And then the other woman faded as well, leaving Elsa in the gray mist that began to turn dark. Not too long and she was embraced by total darkness.

“Remember.” It had been Destiny's voice, seemingly coming from everywhere around her.

* * *

The first thing Elsa noticed was that she lying instead of standing. A soft material was pressed against her back or more precisely gravity was pressing her body into the soft material, a mattress probably. There was also a sheet of fabric spread over the remainder of her body with her arms resting atop the blanket.

She tried to concentrate on her hearing to find out where she was. The first hint was the omnipresent humming that told her that she was back on _Destiny_. No, not back. She had never left the ship. She hadn't been in Arendelle, albeit a twisted version it had been. It must have been something the chair had done to her. Though the reason for the personification of _Destiny_ eluded her. That must have been some trick that the chair had pulled because of her desire to be with another woman. And yet... Destiny had felt different, more independent. But that couldn't be. As far as she knew not even _Atlantis_ had a personification and _Destiny_ was much older.

Had her visit in the chair accomplished anything? Not really. It had been a variant of her past with projections of her colleagues aboard added in. There was only one thing she had learned and that was the hint that Destiny had given her at the end, right before waking up.

_Remember who you are._

It felt like the whole trip had culminated into the this one sentence, that the whole endeavor had to be only for the delivery of these words that – to make matters worse – were merely an outcry to The Lion King. But what exactly should she remember of herself? And what about Elsa being the key, the key for everything and Destiny's heart? Was there a deeper meaning?

Feeling that she wouldn't do any better by merely lying around she finally opened her eyes. But she closed them right away again with a groan, bringing a hand up to shield her eyes. That must have brought her to the attention of someone else in the room however as she heard movement and that movement came closer.

“Elsa, thank God, you're awake.” It was TJ's voice. Carefully Elsa peeked through her fingers again, taking care not to be blinded again. For sure it was the medic who was looking down at her from beside the bed.

“What... happened?”, Elsa asked, her voice coarse and the task of speaking itself more straining than she could have imagined. At least her eyes slowly adjusted to the light in the room.

“Wait.” TJ vanished from her field of view for a moment, then returned, holding out a canteen for Elsa. “Here, drink slowly.”

Elsa tried to sit up, but her muscles complained so much about the sudden use that TJ had to help her, holding up her head so that she could drink. She felt so vulnerable right now, having to rely on others for such a basic task. But the water in her mouth, running down her throat definitely made her feel better.

“You were unconscious for nearly a week.” TJ let Elsa's head sink back down into the cushion and placed the canteen on a table next to her bed. “Lieutenant James had felt guilty right away and informed Colonel Young and Rush. They weren't happy, well, at least the Colonel wasn't, but there wasn't anything we could do however. The chair kept you locked in. After nearly a day it released you, but you didn't wake up.” She shook her head. “A foolish decision to sit in there if you ask me. I had thought that you'd have more wisdom than that.”

“I... had... to do... it”, Elsa pressed out, definitely feeling chastised.

The serious expression on the medic's face softened somewhat.

“Did you at least find out something? Do you now have the knowledge of the chair in your brain?”

“I... don't know... yet.” Elsa didn't know what to make of the last words that the representation of Destiny had told to her. Also she didn't feel like her brain contained any more knowledge than it usually did. Then again according to the mission reports she had read General O'Neill hadn't felt any different at first as well when he had a Repository of Knowledge downloaded into him. So maybe the changes would come in time?

TJ sighed. “Let's hope it was worth it.”

Elsa just wanted to nod when something occurred to her. She didn't feel any needles in her arms, so no IVs.

“How did you... keep me alive?”

A weak smile crossed TJ's face. “So you noticed, hmm? Well... Rush had the glorious idea to put you into the medical bed you and Brody had brought up from the storage room around two weeks ago.”

Elsa remembered that. It had been quite some task to navigate the bed out of the storage room once they had gotten the correct container to the staging point. But having the bed in the infirmary didn't help as it was programmed to Ancient physiology, who were different enough from humans. They had yet to reprogram it.

“But it wasn't programmed for humans?”

“Yeah. Turns out you're different enough from both that the bed could at least keep you nourished.”

“And Colonel Young was okay with that, but not my usage of the chair?” Sometimes Elsa really wondered what the people aboard based their decisions upon. Throwing dice or something?

The medic merely shrugged. “It was either that or using our meager supply of IVs. The Colonel thought it was worth a try and if it wouldn't work we could still keep you alive in other ways. Though of course we didn't know how long you'd stay unconscious. After five days we thought we'd lost you, too.”

That last sentence caught Elsa's attention.

“What do you mean? Lost me, too?” Elsa saw TJ biting her lip as if the woman hadn't yet wanted to spill this. “Tell me, TJ, what happened?”

“It's Rush.” A pause. “He's... he's gone.”

Elsa's eyes widened. Rush? Gone?!

“He was caught in a rock slide on a planet and the Colonel hadn't been able to free him as _Destiny_ was about to enter FTL.” TJ reached for Elsa's hand and squeezed it. “Congratulations, Elsa, you are now lead scientist”, TJ said, her voice filled with sadness and then stepped away from the bed, back to whatever she had worked on before Elsa awoke, leaving Elsa to her thoughts.

Rush was gone. She still couldn't believe it. She knew she had her problems with him, but being caught in a rock slide wasn't something he had deserved. And now Elsa was catapulted into a position of leadership again, a position despite her experience, she didn't feel ready for.

She felt tears rolling down her cheeks and a slight snowfall started around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... you remember what I had written at my first author notes in the prologue? "I currently don't intend to ship Elsa with anyone (except the ship itself maybe :P ) despite what you might read in the upcoming chapters." Ehm... yeah... here we go. :P
> 
> Just to clarify this: the Arendelle we've seen here was of course not the real Arendelle, but an alternate version created by Destiny herself from Elsa's memories, experience, wishes and dreams. So the reactions regarding Elsa's homosexuality might or might not be what would really have happened in Elsa's past (I'll probably do the one or other flashback in the future to toy with this).
> 
> Those of you who know SGU might notice that I've basically jumped over the events of Justice. I didn't think that there was anything important that Elsa could add to that episode. Aside from that I want to get along a bit. ;) (However Elsa will get to know the full details of the episode)
> 
> The medical bed mentioned at the end was already referenced in earlier chapters and is by itself inspired from Sage1988's "SGU: Guiding Light" on FF.net.
> 
> The next chapter will be "Space".


	13. Space

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we go again. Sometimes I wonder why I take so long to write these :/ Also it's one of my shorter chapters...
> 
> I've decided to drop the "SGU" from the title. It wasn't really that nice and useful anyway...
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

“Hi, Elsa.” Eli was smiling towards her as Elsa entered his room. “Hey, what are you eating?” He pointed at the bowl she was holding before her. It was around dinner time and she had decided to have her meal on the go.

“It's one of those strange potatoes that had been found while I was unconscious”, she answered and lowered the bowl for him to see.

“Eww, how can you eat that stuff? It tastes awful.”

He was right of course. These “potatoes” tasted absolutely horrible, but despite that they were edible.

She shrugged. “They are an alternative source of vitamins and such to our limited supply of rations. We should be thankful that we found them.”

“No, thank you.” Eli turned back to his console where he was monitoring one of the Kinos. “And you sound like Greer by the way. He said something similar when we tasted it for the first time.”

“Well, maybe I gave Greer less credit then he deserves.” She didn't interact much with the soldier. And their last interaction had been the argument between him and Dr. Rush that she had intervened in.

She felt a pang at the thought of her lost colleague. It's been a day since she'd been released from the infirmary and she'd been so overwhelmed with work that she hadn't had much time to think about what had happened. As much as she had been shocked by TJ's revelation it had been even worse when Colonel Young had asked her into his office.

* * *

_Elsa felt nervous. She was standing in front of the door separating her from Colonel Young's office and was wringing her hands. She probably hadn't felt this nervous since her coronation, but back then the reason had been her fear of her powers, now it had been about the decision she had made herself, undermining the Colonel's authority. She didn't know how he would react. The logical part of her mind told her that everything would be alright, that he wouldn't be able to punish her too hard, especially now that Rush was gone, but the emotional part of her..._

Conceal, don't feel, don't let it show _, she repeated the old mantra of her father in her head. So often she had thought that she'd never need it again and more often than not she had been proven wrong._

 _She took a deep breath and pressed the button on the door control that would announce her arrival. She could hear the chime, then a chair_ _moving,_ _then nothing until the cogwheels of the door began to_ _spin_ _and the door wings slid apart to reveal Colonel Young standing in front of her._

_He must have known that it was her standing here – well, she did have an appointment after all – as we was looking down into her eyes right away._

_He took a step aside._

“ _Come in”, he said, without even an inviting gesture into his room._

_Elsa gulped and did as asked, moving over to the desk, but not sitting down without being invited to._

“ _Sit”, he said, while doing so himself._

 _Elsa sat down and didn't know whether she should look at the Colonel or away from him. Despite their age difference she felt like a little girl again who was about to be reprimanded by her father because she had involved her little sister in something mischievous._ _And her feeling wasn't even_ that _wrong considering that Colonel Young was the leader of their little expedition._

 _In the end she decided to look at_ _said leader_ _, but the warmth of his eyes that she had been so accustomed to had been missing and it nearly made her recoil._

“ _What were you thinking?” He didn't raise his voice, but nevertheless she felt as_ _if_ _she had been hit by a whip._

“ _I wanted to find a way home”, Elsa said after a moment. “I wanted to get everyone home, to get Scott's son to see his father.”_

“ _And yet you've acted against my explicit order, putting your life in jeopardy.”_

“ _But it is_ my _life we're talking about._ I _had made the decision to sit in there. I'm fully willing to sacrifice my life to get everyone else home.” And there was the topic again: her death. A few weeks ago she would have simply given up, but now? Now she was willing to do anything to get everyone home._

Unlike Rush- Dr. Rush, _she berated herself. She decided she should address her missing colleague with his title again, now that he was gone._

 _Colonel Young's eyes_ _were piercing into hers and she held his gaze, hoping that he'd like what he'd see in her eyes._

_After what seemed like minutes he finally spoke again. “Any further subordination of my orders and I'll have you in detention, is that clear?”_

_Apparently he had liked what he'd seen._

“ _Yes, it is, Colonel.”_

“ _Good.” He leaned back in his chair and put his hands in his lap._

 _Elsa wondered what was left to discuss now. She let her_ _gaze_ _wander to one of the windows in the room, looking at the FTL streamers that enveloped the ship._

“ _Have you found anything?”, Colonel Young's voice disrupted the calming state that had started to overtake her mind._

_She looked back at him. “What?”, she asked confused._

“ _Have you found anything while in the chair?”, he repeated and clarified._

 _Elsa thought back_ _to_ _her experience in the chair. Or did she have the majority of her... vision during her stay in the infirmary? Her perception of time had been totally screwed up there and TJ hadn't been able either to help her clear things up. Nevertheless she concentrated back on what she had learned. Her being the key to Destiny's heart and her having to remember who she was. It wasn't entirely clear to her yet, but then again she had been_ _too_ _overwhelmed by the loss of Dr. Rush to think too much about it._

“ _I'm not sure yet. I got_ something _, but not in the sense of having all the knowledge downloaded in my brain. It's more like... a riddle. A hint probably to find the master code.”_

 _Colonel Young was silent for a while.”_ _Well, keep working on that”, he finally said. “I'm hereby also declaring you as lead scientist.”_

“ _Wait, what?”, Elsa blurted out. Had he really just said what she thought he had? Her becoming the lead scientist of the expedition? Taking over where Dr. Rush had left off? Her being in another role of responsibility again?_

“ _I don't see a reason why not. You were essentially already Rush's second in command, you know probably more about the ship than anyone else does and everybody respects you and your knowledge. Not to mention that you have experience in leadership.”_

“ _I... I don't know.” She knew that Colonel Young was right, that she was the right one for the job, at least as far as one could apply the term “right” to their whole situation. But there was a part of her, that part that had always stayed the frightened little girl that had held her sister's unconscious body; a part that she had under control normally, but now threatened to come forward, flooding her with the fear that she'd just fail, just like she had failed to protect Anna._

_Colonel Young leaned forward, resting his hands on the table between them._

“ _I know you can do it.”_

* * *

Elsa took another bite of the bitter potato. Not only had she been reprimanded by Young, but also promoted. She shook her head. Life took the strangest turns.

On the screen in front of Eli she could she the room where they had set up the stone terminal. Lieutenant Scott was in there as was Dr. Caine who had taken over Riley's role of monitoring the terminal until the latter had fully recovered from his accident a while ago. Elsa was thankful that she was deemed too important to be put on stone duty. She had dealt with the terminals enough when she had helped to develop them.

Her thoughts were interrupted when TJ and Vanessa James entered Eli's room.

“Hey Elsa, Eli”, TJ said.

Elsa nodded and waved her fork in greeting as she was still chewing on a piece of potato.

“You're eating that stuff?”, asked Vanessa, looking into Elsa's bowl.

“See?”, Eli commented with a glance at Elsa before he quickly turned back to his console.

Elsa swallowed and just wanted to retort something when TJ interrupted her.

“The pressure in the showers is running low. Could someone check on it?”

Elsa sighed. She hadn't expected that being lead scientist also meant having to deal with scheduling engineering tasks. But then again she had known that Dr. Rush had also done that.

“I'll ask Brody to give it a look.”

“Thanks”, TJ said with a smile.

“Caine looks so handsome.” Elsa's gaze snapped right at Vanessa while she raising an eyebrow.

“What?”, the woman shrugged. “I'd really love to feel up his body, snuggling up to him and maybe doing something more.”

Elsa felt her face turning red and from the corner of her eyes she could see Eli trying to say something.

“ _I can hear you just fine”_ , came a voice out of the console's speakers, Caine's voice.

It took a moment for everyone to process this, but then both Elsa and TJ broke into laughter while Vanessa first became red like a tomato before tumbling out of Eli's room.

“Kill me now”, she whined.

TJ went after her and hugged her in good spirit.

Elsa looked after them for a while, trying to reel in her laughter before she returned her attention to her meal and to the console showing the stone room.

Finally Colonel Young and Sergeant Greer entered the room, with the former stepping towards the table with the stone terminal and the latter taking a position at the side.

“ _Everything ready?”_ , the Colonel asked.

Caine shrugged. _“I don't have much clue_ _about_ _these stones. All I can say is that no problems are reported.”_

“ _Good enough.”_ The Colonel picked of one of the five communication stones and placed the smooth, plum sized device on the surface of the stone terminal.

For a moment it seemed that nothing happened, then however the head of the Colonel began looking around the room in fast, chopped movements. Almost as if the movements weren't human.

“ _Welcome aboard the_ Destiny _”_ , said Caine towards the inhabitant of the body.

The head of the Colonel snapped around to look at the source of the voice. Something wasn't right, Elsa could feel it.

Then it happened. Whoever was now in Colonel Young's body attacked Lieutenant Scott who had been standing nearby. But while the Lieutenant had been too surprised to react, Greer reacted immediately and tackled the Colonel from the Lieutenant and struggled with him. After a few moments Greer had the upper hand and tried to strangulate Colonel Young enough to get him to loose consciousness.

Meanwhile Caine had grabbed a cloth to remove the stone from the terminal. The connection was severed.

“ _What happened?”_ , Elsa could hear Colonel Young ask, herself still frozen at her place behind Eli's chair. Both of them hadn't moved an inch during the scene in the stone room, both due to their surprise and the fact that it had been over too soon... thankfully.

“ _Don't fucking know, sir”_ , Greer responded and released Colonel Young.

* * *

They had all gone to the infirmary so that TJ could check the Colonel while they discussed what had just happened. Especially troublesome had been Young's side of the story as he had recounted that had found himself on an alien spaceship together with non humanoid aliens.

“Look, I don't even know how the stones work. I'm merely a replacement for Sergeant Riley till he's recovered again”, Caine said, defending the little knowledge he had of the stones.

Colonel Young turned towards Elsa.

“Well, the stones work with some kind of subspace communication. They can work by themselves more or less without the use of a terminal, though this mostly results in visions of other people's lives. With a terminal it's possible to tap into the full potential of the stones, thus allowing the communication we are doing. Even with only one terminal it might be possible to establish a strong enough connection for a swap to take place.” Elsa took a breath. “So if what you've seen is true-”

“I know what I've seen”, Colonel Young interrupted her. “My imagination isn't good enough for this.”

“In that case it's safe to assume that those aliens you described are in possession of at least one communication stone however they might have gotten a hold of it. Or they are able to tap into the communication between the stones.” She deflated. “I don't know which scenario I'd prefer.”

“Do they know where we are?”, Lieutenant Scott asked.

Elsa shook her head. “I don't know. It depends upon their knowledge of Ancient technology. Maybe they tapped into the communication out of curiosity, cause it had been sweeping through their space. Maybe they found the stone and experimented with it and Colonel Young just happened to jump right in.”

“Too many ifs and maybes for my liking”, Colonel Young said. “I'll suspend stone communications till we've found a solution.”

“Camile won't like that”, Elsa remarked, remembering that the woman had been eager to file a report about the recent happenings on _Destiny_ , especially Elsa's... insubordination and the loss of Dr. Rush.

“I'll deal with her. What about the ship?” Colonel Young looked from Elsa to Eli who were standing next to each other.

“Thanks to the repair robot we were able to repair some of the hull breaches, thus further reducing the pressure on the shields. It might only be a few percent of strength we gain with that, but it's better than nothing”, Eli reported. Elsa had delegated the coordination of the repairs to him so that she could deal with the other tasks her new position of leadership required of her.

“Weapons?”, Young asked and Elsa as well as Eli had to do a sharp inhale. That was a bit of a sore topic. “Well?”

“Dr. Rush had inserted a protection so that we couldn't bring those weapons online that we haven't checked yet. And we're still in the middle of checking them. It's to avoid any further accident like that one with Sergeant Riley”, Elsa explained.

“Numbers, Elsa”, he ordered, loosing a bit of his patience.

Elsa bit her lip, something she had picked up from Anna many years back. “Thirty percent. We can bring thirty percent of the weapons online at once. And even then they'll drain our shield energy with each shot.”

The eyes of the soldiers in the room widened upon hearing this. They apparently weren't used to potentially run into a fight without all weapons blaring.

“And I won't have to remind you that without the shields we can't jump into FTL and charging will be impossible as well. If we loose our shields, we're done for.” Elsa didn't like that she'd have to rub that in, but the soldiers in front of her needed to understand that should it come to the worst they'd have to favor defense over offense if they wanted to survive.

“Do you know the reason why the weapons drain the shields?”, Scott asked after he had recovered a bit from Elsa's revelation.

Elsa shrugged. “Probably old age. If we'd be able to repair all conduits then I bet that we could power both without problems as long as we have enough energy.” She didn't mention that the shields would still be drained by enemy fire, but she hoped that Young and the others would understand what she meant.

“The main weapon?”, Young then asked.

That was another sore spot for Elsa. They had found out that _Destiny_ possessed a large, three barreled main weapon that could be lowered from near the tip of her. From the data Elsa had seen the weapon was powerful enough to destroy asteroids. But that also meant that it needed just as much power.

“It _should_ be ready. However Dr. Rush had locked that weapon out as well as the drainage of the shield would be just as bad or even worse as with the remainder of the weapon system. Also due to a damaged cooling system the firing rate won't be as high as it could be.”

She looked at Young, waiting for his reaction, dreading potential orders that would come. After a few seconds he finally answered.

“Divert the repairs to the power conduits. Try to isolate or whatever as many turrets as possible from the shield energy and lift that thirty percent restriction.”

“But...”, Eli wanted to interrupt, but Young held up a hand.

“We'll only use the additional weapons if we need to. But we need to have them available should it come to the worst.”

Both Elsa and Eli nodded with hesitation.

“Good. Let's get on it.”

* * *

“Purple plants”, Lieutenant Scott said while looking at the video feed of the Kino they had just sent through the Stargate.

“To collect as much red light as possible”, Elsa said, looking at the strange colored plants. “At least if the light spectrum is anything to go by.”

“Yeah, probably the planet orbits a red dwarf star”, Brody commented. It was his turn to operate the console this time. “Though it would be interesting to know how well the plants survive the solar storms of the star.”

“What do you mean?”, Scott asked.

Elsa and Brody looked at each other, the latter shrugged, so Elsa took the turn of explaining the situation.

“Since red dwarf stars are rather small there material is mixed much better than in a larger star like our Sun for example, resulting in much more violent and massive solar eruptions. Any planet orbiting such a star and any life on it will have to deal with it as well. I hope I don't need to remind you that without Earth's magnetic field we wouldn't stand here right now.”

Lieutenant Scott nodded in understanding.

“Would be interesting to get a few specimens for our biologists and maybe a few measurements of the solar activity”, Brody suggested.

“Purple salad would at least mix up our diet a bit”, Colonel Young said. “Close it down and let's put together a team.” He glanced at the countdown clock behind him. “We've got a bit of time until _Destiny_ will go back to FTL.”

Suddenly someone ran into the gate room through one of the side doors. Everyone looked up, noticing Vanessa James.

“You've got to see this”, she said, a bit out of breath, while pointing roughly into the direction she had come from.

They went to one of the nearby windows that looked straight ahead of _Destiny_. Right ahead of them sat an object of a blocky shape with a red glowing circle pointed towards _Destiny_.

“It just appeared and now it sits there”, Vanessa reported.

The other four all looked at each other and silently made the decision to move over to the Control Interface Room.

Once they entered it turned out that of course _Destiny's_ sensors had picked up the strange object as well. So at least it wasn't a figment of their imagination.

“Already coming up”, quipped Eli once he had noticed them all entering.

Elsa went to her console while Brody occupied a third one. Young and Scott continued to stand near the entrance. Then a holographic display appeared between Eli and Elsa's consoles, showing an analysis of the strange object which turned out to be a spaceship.

“Suggestions?”, Young asked after he had studied the display for a while, not being able to read the Ancient texts displayed next to it – at least as far Elsa was aware of.

“We don't know yet whether they have hostile intentions. So... maybe a little message?”, suggested Elsa.

Young raised an eyebrow.

“We have broadcasting capabilities”, Eli threw in, eliciting a nod from Young.

“But will they understand it?”, the Colonel then asked.

Eli shrugged. “Maybe they have some kind of translation device. I'd send a message in Ancient to be on the safe side.”

Colonel Young nodded again. “Do it.”

Eli pressed a few buttons to put together a fitting message – thankfully his Ancient had improved since their first arrival on _Destiny_ – and sent the message.

“Done.”

“What about the chances for two alien encounters in a day?”, Scott asked.

“Very unlikely”, answered Elsa with worry. That was too much of a coincidence.

“I bet that I have been on that ship in the morning”, commented Young while he continued to stare at the holographic display. Elsa agreed with that. Having two _different_ aliens showing up shortly after another would have been even more disturbing than the situation had already been.

“You piqued their curiosity? How do you think they found us so fast?”, Scott continued to ask.

“I think they've followed us for quite some time already”, Young said.

Elsa didn't like the thought that _Destiny_ had been shadowed by some aliens for who knew how long in the past. Maybe even before they all had arrived on _Destiny_.

A chirp from Eli's console interrupted the discussion and after the young man had pressed a few buttons he looked at the others with wide eyes.

“What is it, Eli?”, asked Elsa, moving around to Eli's console, Young and Scott doing the same.

“They answered.”

All three looked at the display in front of them and they could definitely understand Eli's surprise. There was a red window with the English word “Surrender” displayed in it.

“It's not a translation”, Eli added.

Despite not feeling the cold that definitely sent a chill down Elsa's spine. It was one thing if the aliens would know Ancient, but them knowing English was even worse in her opinion.

“What did you send them?”, the Colonel asked.

Eli shrugged. “Just the standard message. 'Hi, we're peaceful humans from planet Earth and we'd like to meet you'. Should I answer?”

“No”, was the mere and immediate response of Young.

“No?”, both Eli and Elsa asked in surprise.

“No. Get the weapons online.” Young turned to Scott while Elsa moved back to her console. “I want you and Greer in that shuttle.”

“Yes, sir”, Scott confirmed and left the room.

Young reached for his radio and keyed it. “This is Colonel Young. All personnel to your designated areas.”

Unlike the civilians aboard the military still seemed to prefer their radios. Something that Elsa didn't understand especially since the PADDs she had found allowed for private communication between people, even groups of people.

Another chirp, this time from Elsa's console interrupted her thought. She pressed a few buttons while the others looked at her with curiosity.

“They are launching smaller ships.” She switched the holographic display floating in the room to a tactical one, showing both ships as schematic shapes from above. Red dots started to appear at the outside of the alien ship. That definitely didn't look good.

“We didn't yet have time to circumvent all of Dr. Rush's restrictions”, Elsa said shooting a glance at Brody who got the hint and to try to help her and Eli with that problem.

“Shuttle has launched.” A blue dot now appeared next to the schematic representation of _Destiny_ while the other ships closed in.

Thankfully Elsa and Eli didn't have to deal with the targeting and firing themselves. _Destiny_ seemed quite capable to do so herself, slowly but surely damaging or even destroying one ship after the other. Of course it hurt Elsa to see other lives being ended by her hands even if it was indirect like this. It was much like all those decades back in Arendelle when the thugs of Weselton came into her ice palace to kill her. Back then Hans' words had stopped her from going through with killing them, but now, right here she was merely pressing buttons that led to dots disappearing from a display. She was disconnected from the loss of life out there and it pained her to feel this.

“Shield status?”, Young asked as the ship shook a little.

“They are slowly depleting it with their weapons. Currently we're at 95 percent and falling”, Elsa reported.

Eli was frantically pushing buttons while Elsa showed more routine. Though she was nervous as well.

“Eli, Elsa, progress?” Elsa didn't know whether Young asking this was of any help. Especially considering Eli's answer.

“Hey, first real space battle over here!”

“I've brought a few more turrets online”, Elsa said while giving Eli a soothing look which the other didn't notice, being too busy with his console and all that.

“We're now at 85 percent shield strength”, commented Brody from his console.

“Can you boost it?”, Young asked.

“I'm trying.”

“Most of the drainage is from our own weapons”, Elsa said after she had checked her console.

“We have surges all over the ship!”, Eli exclaimed after an alarm had sounded from his console. He looked at Young. “The weapon system wasn't ready for this.”

“Do what you can! Everyone aboard counts on you!”, Young replied.

“I didn't need to hear that.” Despite this Eli continued to work on his console. Elsa however was a bit more used to the stress albeit she had never been in a position like her current one back on _Atlantis_.

Both _Destiny_ and her shuttle hit the alien ships, reducing their number, but there were just so many that it didn't make any real difference.

Brody's console beeped. “Someone flipped the breaker in one of the corridors near the observation room.”

“At least that got hold of one of the surges”, Eli commented.

Suddenly however all the red dots on the holographic display started to move away from _Destiny_.

“They are retreating”, Elsa stated. Eli and Brody looked up as well.

“ _Colonel Young, this is Airman Dunning”_ , came a voice out of the radios gathered in the room. _“Please respond.”_

The Colonel picked up his radio and keyed it. “This is Young. Go ahead.”

“ _Sir... we uhm... we had one of the alien ships board us.”_

Everyone in the room inhaled sharply. They had been boarded? Why hadn't they noticed? Did any of the ship systems warn them? How did they pass through the ship's shields? Elsa would definitely need to find answers to these questions.

“ _They've taken Ms. Armstrong hostage.”_

Chloe! Elsa's hand shot up to cover her mouth that was open in shock.

Colonel Young keyed the radio again. “Thank you Airman. Report to the control room for a debriefing.”

“ _Yes, sir.”_

“Eli, hold fire”, Young ordered Eli right after Dunning's confirmation. Then he turned to Elsa. “Hail the shuttle.”

Elsa pressed a few buttons then once the connection had been established she nodded at Young who was still looking at her.

“ _Destiny_ to shuttle. Lieutenant, fall back to the ship.”

“ _But sir, we can hit them”_ , came Scott's response from the speakers located in the room.

“Negative. Chloe is aboard one of these ships.”

The silence that followed was intense.

“ _Understood”_ , he finally answered, his voice transporting how much he cared for the kidnapped woman. _“Returning to_ Destiny _. Shuttle out.”_

Colonel Young turned to the three civilians in the room. “I want you to assess our damages and to get as many weapons online as we can afford.”

* * *

After the debriefing of Airman Cunning, who had told Colonel Young and the others that the aliens had simply cut a hole through _Destiny's_ hull – another one they'll have to repair, Elsa had commented sourly – Young had decided that he'd go to the ship using the communication stones. At least if the theory proved right that the ship had been the same Young had been on previously.

Eli, Elsa and Brody stayed behind in the Control Interface Room, trying to override Dr. Rush's weapon restrictions, studying replays of the battle or organizing the repair teams and the repair robot respectively. On one of the console's they also had a view of the Kino that was in the stone room so that they could witness what happened there.

Colonel Young had been strapped in tight so that the alien wouldn't be able to attack anyone again. Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer who were in the room together with Dr. Caine readied themselves as Caine touched a stone with a piece of cloth to Young's skin – the cloth was used to avoid imprinting his own signature on the stone – before he placed it on the stone terminal. The body of the Colonel stiffened and whoever possessed his body began to look around in erratic, hectic movements.

If that hadn't been enough proof that Young had indeed swapped with the alien again then it would be the strange cries of his body once Scott tried to communicate with it. Apparently while the aliens where able to send a simple message of surrender in English they weren't able to verbally communicate with humans. Though the alien's screeches felt displaced and wrong coming from Young's body despite all of them not knowing how the aliens were supposed to sound.

“Elsa?”, Brody asked, prompting Elsa to look away from the happenings in the stone room.

She raised both eyebrows indicating that she'd heard him and had his attention now.

“What do you think about separating the power rails that lead to the weapons from the ones feeding the shields? I've sent you a schematic.”

Elsa pressed a few buttons and a schematic of the ship opened, displaying the power rails that fed both the weapons and the shields.

“It could solve some of our drainage problems”, Elsa stated, “but there aren't enough undamaged conduits to separate all of them. In fact it seems that originally that was already the case and the ship merely merged the two together as more and more conduits failed.” She sighed. “We should definitely do that though, but it won't help us in the short term, with the aliens still looming in front of us.” She gestured to the holographic display that still showed the tactical view with both _Destiny_ and the alien ship.

“Yeah, but we've already repaired a few of the conduits”, Brody answered. “So maybe we could at least reroute them to have a handful of weapons not drain the shields.”

Elsa mused this over a bit. It was something they'd be able to do in a moment's notice and even a little reduction of the shield drainage would provide them with an edge as small as it was.

She nodded. “Do it.”

They spent a few more minutes working on their tasks before a chance in the behavior of Colonel Young's body became apparent. He had returned. On the one hand Elsa was glad that Colonel Young had come back safely, but on the other she stayed concerned regarding Chloe. Had the Colonel managed to do anything?

“ _Send me back!”_ , she heard the Colonel order. Had something interrupted the communication?

“ _I'm trying. It's not working”_ , Caine set from his place at the terminal.

Suddenly, without warning, the ship shook.

“What was that?”, Eli asked looking confused towards Elsa.

She consulted her console. “The alien ship. They're firing.”

“No fighters this time?”

Elsa shook her head. “No. They're firing directly.”

The ship shook again, this time stronger.

“Their ship-to-ship weapons are definitely draining our shields much faster”, Brody remarked.

“I'll reroute power from weapons to shie-”, Elsa began, but she was interrupted by a new voice coming from the sole radio in the room.

“ _Elsa this is Young. Deploy the main weapon. Fire on that ship.”_

That wasn't what she had intended, especially not with Chloe on that ship, but she didn't want to defy orders yet again. She sent an apologetic look towards Eli who was watching her and then she nodded at him, sending him the silent confirmation that he should indeed deploy the main weapon.

“Understood”, she answered into the radio.

From the schematics of the ship Elsa had studied she knew that the main weapon was located at the tip of _Destiny_ and that it was – in one word – massive. Its size, the energy bolts it shot and the energy reserves it consumed – though the latter was of course mostly due to the damages the ship had suffered throughout the millennia.

On her screen she saw that the confirmation that the weapon was indeed firing and that it had the intended effect on the alien ship.

“And what about Chloe?”, Elsa asked once Colonel Young had entered the room.

Young looked at the holographic display. The ship shook again and this time some conduit overloaded, showering the room in sparks that thankfully didn't harm anyone. Then the Colonel answered.

“There's nothing we can do. Continue firing.”

“We can't keep up the firing rate though”, Eli commented. “The weapon will overheat.”

“Shields are down to 35 percent!”, Brody said from his console.

“Colonel, without shields...” Elsa left the sentence hanging in the open by intension. They had discussed this, so he'd know what she meant.

“Divert the power of all weapons beside the main one to the shields.”

Elsa gladly did so.

“That has bought us 20 percent”, Brody commented.

“Status of the alien ship?”, Young asked.

Elsa checked the ship's state on her console. “Their shields as depleted as ours, maybe even more so. They can't take much more.” She looked at the console again. “Wait, something's happening. I'm registering an energy buildup in the ship.” A few moments passed and then the holographic display showed the alien ship zooming away. “They're gone.”

Everyone in the room felt the relief upon this simple statement.

“There is however something”, Eli said. “A single fighter of the aliens has stayed behind and approaches us.”

“What?”

Elsa could see shock in Colonel Young's eyes. But there was also something else... it seemed like foreboding, but for what? What had happened on that ship?

“It docked with us. A few corridors away from the shuttle's docking port. Judging by the life sign map Scott and Greer are on their way there now”, Eli further explained.

“Let me guess. We'll get a new hole in the hull.” Elsa shook her head. They had made great progress in getting at least the aft part of the ship airtight again and now they had two additional holes to deal with.

“ _Colonel Young, this is Greer. Come in”_ , came Sergeant Greer's voice from the radios in the room.

Young reached for his radio and keyed it. “Go ahead.”

“ _You are not going to believe this.”_

Again there was this foreboding look on the Colonel's face.

* * *

It turned out that Sergeant Greer had been right with his assessment. It really was hard to believe, but nevertheless the living proof had presented itself: not only had Chloe been in that alien fighter, but it had been piloted by no one less than Dr. Rush.

A medical checkup and a change of clothes – alien jumpsuits weren't that fashionable this season after all – Elsa sat together with others in the mess hall and listened to the tale of the two that had returned.

“So, when I had woken up from the... uhm stone slide I was alone”, Rush began, eating a spoon of the ration that stood before him. “So I decided to take a look at the alien vessel.”

Elsa remembered having read that. That's why a team of scientists had gone to the planet as an alien ship had crash landed there. If it wouldn't have been for her adventure in the chair she would have been there as well.

“I gained access to the ship and tried to figure out its controls.” Rush snickered. “Must have activated a beacon by accident then.” He pointed his spoon at Elsa. “Would have preferred if you'd been there with me. You're a linguist after all.”

 _Who are you and what have those aliens done with Rush?_ , Elsa wondered upon this praise. Then she shrugged. “We can still take a look at the ship you've arrived with.”

“You sure about that?”, Dale Volker asked. “Won't we activate another beacon by accident?”

“I don't think they really need one”, Rush commented and everyone at the table paled at that thought. “Sure, it makes it easier for them to pinpoint us, but from what I've gathered from their minds, I-”

“Huh?”, Eli interrupted. “What do you mean?”

“They have devices that allows one to probe another's mind for information. They used it to probe me for information about humanity, but more importantly about _Destiny_. Though I think I managed to resist.”

Chloe used that to chime in. “I wasn't as successful to keep them from probing my mind, but thankfully I don't know that much sensitive information anyway.”

“Do-don't say that, Chloe”, Eli stammered. “I'm sure you... you tried your best to deflect them. And that you don't have any sensitive information doesn't necessarily mean that won't get anything of your memories.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “And which part of that was supposed to cheer her up?”

“I... uhm...” Eli smiled sheepishly at both Elsa and Chloe and that looked away from them.

Then Rush continued nearly as if he hadn't been interrupted. “What's more I managed to get a glimpse at their own knowledge despite the devices being especially designated as transmitters and receivers.”

“What did you learn of them?”, Elsa asked while Rush ate another spoonful of ration.

“They're shadowing _Destiny_ for quite some time already. They are interested in her technology, but so far the ship had deflected each attempt to board her.”

“Then what changed?”, Eli asked.

“We”, Elsa said, realizing what Rush was angling at.

Rush nodded. “Right. We came here and messed with the systems. We took over the automated defenses, played with the shields, more importantly kept using the weapons longer than _Destiny_ herself had, thus allowing the aliens to penetrate the weaker shields with their ships.”

Brody looked at Elsa. “Seems like we should definitely prioritize the separation of the energy conduits.”

This time it was Elsa who nodded. “I agree. That might give us the necessary edge.” She paused. “Though of course now that Dr. Rush is back”, she smiled at him, “it's his decision, not mine anymore.”

“So, Colonel Young promoted you despite your little mishap with the chair?” Rush looked at her intensely. “Interesting...”

Elsa could tell there was more to this rhetoric question, something that made her alarms ring. She'd try to investigate this later, but not now. Now they'd enjoy that they were all together again.

“Speaking of which”, Rush leaned forward, resting his head on his hands. “Did you find out anything while in that chair?”

Elsa sighed. She had wondered when Rush would ask her. “Not much. The virtual reality I had been in had stressed my own importance, while being as cryptic as we're used from the Ancients themselves. No surprises here considering they had built _Destiny_...”

“I'm sure you'll do your best to find how whatever the ship wanted to tell you.”

* * *

Elsa was looking through the plants that were growing in the botanic lab. According to the others, most importantly Franklin who was responsible for their little garden, there had to... ah, there! She reached between the leaves, tugged a bit and withdrew her hand again, holding between her fingers a red strawberry. A smile appeared on her face.

It was strange. Back on Earth she had tried to eat various fruits only when they had been in season, her approach in showing restraint, demonstrating to others that one didn't need each and every fruit all year round. Of course that was only a snowflake in a blizzard, but she felt compelled to do this.

Despite this she had never really missed strawberries however, cause at least in theory she could have had them every time. But here, millions of light years from Earth, every fruit they grew was basically a luxury item. They had brought the seeds with them when they had fled Icarus base and those of their group that were experienced with plants – Franklin as a biologist among them and Lisa Park as well – had planted them, the seeds the Ancients had stored as well as seeds from planets they had been on in the past weeks. Of course the latter two were much more an experiment. The seeds from the Ancients were more or less plants from Earth as well, but from Earth's far past. Yes, they were cultivated plants, but different from what they all knew nevertheless. And the plants they had found on the alien planets? Each and every one was totally different from Earth's. In some cases they might have looked like certain Earth plants or fruits, but tasting totally different, like that strange potato they got served in the mess hall.

But she wouldn't complain about this and she knew that no one else aboard really did either. Of course they joked about these potatoes or the tomatoes that tasted like raspberries, but in the end they were glad that they now had alternatives. They weren't yet sustaining, so their main meals still consisted mainly of the ration powder, but slowly yet surely they were getting somewhere. And once the arboretum was repaired – estimates were some time next week – they could try to plant a few bigger plants there.

She led the strawberry to her lips, savoring the smell of the space grown fruit. Slowly she took a bite of the small fruit, chewing it, giving her taste buds all the time they needed to do their work. She closed her eyes to enjoy the feeling, a small moan escaping her.

“If I wouldn't know better, I'd say someone is heading towards an orgasm”, a voice said from somewhere beside her, a voice she knew very well for the past 180 years.

Elsa opened her eyes again and looked into the direction of the voice. Just as expected her younger sister stood there, clad in white as usual.

“Oh, stop it, Anna, you know how long I didn't have any strawberries.”

“Yeah, and you know how long _I_ didn't get to taste any?” A strawberry appeared between Anna's fingers and she took a bite of it, though in a more common manner than Elsa did just moments before.

Elsa flinched. “I'm sorry Anna, I forgot...” She looked away from her sister, her cheeks red from shame. _Great job, Elsa. You may have stopped hurting her physically, but emotionally you're still as bad as ever._

“It's okay, Elsa.” Elsa could see that Anna wanted to reach out, but then she played with her braids instead. “Unlike you I can taste strawberries every time I want, though it always tastes like the summary of the memories I have of the taste of strawberries.” Elsa saw the weak smile of her sister and knew right away – as if there had been any doubt – that Anna wasn't exactly truthful, that it wasn't okay.

“And here I thought I'm the reclusive one”, Elsa said with a shake of her head. “What did all that time do to us?”

Anna smiled, a real one this time. “It changed us, made us better people, but it also confronted us with the harsh reality of life.”

“I agree with you on the 'life' one, but I'm calling doubts on the 'better people'.”

“Do what you want, sis, but I know you and how you've improved.”

Elsa smirked mischievously. “I was talking about you.”

Anna gasped in mock hurt. “How dare you! If I'd be corporal I'd tackle and tickle you!” She made tickling gestures with her hands.

Elsa put Anna off. “As if that had ever worked. If you remember correctly then it is you who's ticklish, not me.”

“Damn it”, Anna said, pouting.

“Language, Anna.” Elsa had long stopped to correct her sister's language, but sometimes she couldn't stop to nag her sister about that.

Anna grinned. “And what do you want to do about it? Tickle me? Good luck with that.”

“I'll figure something out.”

“Figure what out?”, a new voice asked from the door.

Both Elsa and Anna turned around to take a look at the newcomer. It was Camile Wray who had entered the room.

“Nothing. I was just mumbling a bit.” Elsa knew that Anna was only visible for her, so from Camile's perspective Elsa had just talked to herself.

The other woman came closer to Elsa and Anna, the latter standing a bit towards the side to avoid being run in by Camile. Anna had told Elsa once that others might feel _something_ if they passed through an Ascended being, giving a bit of credibility to ghost stories. And it wasn't completely pleasant for an Ascended being either.

“Is that so?”, Camile asked, an eyebrow raised, doubt written all over her face.

Elsa shrugged. “It sometimes helps to speak things out loud, I did that quite often when I was Queen.” She thought back especially at those moments after she had thrown out Anna and Kristoff from her ice palace, trying to conceal her emotions again. Though she had indeed done that afterwards as well, so she didn't lie to Camile.

“And what did you want to figure out?”

Elsa paled at that question. Now she had to think something up and fast.

“I, uhm, was thinking about, uhm...” _Smooth, Elsa... smooth._ “How to adjust our shields to avoid further boardings.”

Camile looked Elsa in the eyes, judging what the latter had said. Apparently she liked what she saw enough to drop the topic.

“I hope you'll figure something out then.” Camile turned towards the plants, petting the leaves of the strawberries. “I doubt we'd have another Rush aboard an alien ship if someone else gets abducted.”

Elsa shuddered. They would have lost Chloe if it wouldn't have been for Rush. She wondered though what had prompted Young to relentlessly fire upon the alien ship. It was as if he knew that Rush was aboard and he didn't want him to return. Elsa shook her head. No, that couldn't be. Or could it?

“How do you think Colonel Young handled the situation?”, Camile then asked, back still turned to her.

 _Oh great._ Just the question that Elsa needed. She took a quick glance at Anna who merely shrugged.

“Well, there wasn't much talking to these aliens. For good reason as Rush has explained. So defense was the only viable option.”

Camile turned around again and looked Elsa in the eyes.

“And what about the second part of the battle? I was not there in the control room, but I've seen that all weapons except the one below the ship had stopped firing. What had prompted this reaction?”

“He-he wanted to ensure our-our safety”, Elsa stuttered, not at all feeling well being scrutinized by the other woman.

“You think so, hmm?” Camile paused for a moment, continuing to look at Elsa. “ _I_ think that this was just yet another example of military irresponsibility. All military personnel aboard this ship should be held responsible for their actions.”

That was a very dangerous territory the other woman was treading on, close to suggesting a mutiny, something that didn't sit well with Elsa. She respected Colonel Young despite some of his flaws. Did Camile really expect the military to continue to protect them all if they were subdued? Especially if their leader had been somehow put out of the picture? What if they decided to switch Colonel Young permanently with someone from Earth? Maybe someone even worse? Like Telford for example. She suppressed a shudder.

Elsa thought a bit more about what had happened during the time she had been unconscious. Young had been accused of having murdered Spencer and through the Colonel's trial Camile had been the acting leader aboard _Destiny_ until Eli found proof that Spencer had killed himself. Could it be that Camile enjoyed this position a bit too much? A step forward that hadn't been granted to her back on Icarus base which basically had been a backwater planet, a wasteful stop on her career? But now she was here on _Destiny_ and was the highest ranking member of the IOA, an organization that had been known in the past years to mess with the military's decisions. An organization that had more often than not shone with really bad ideas. She had to admit however that she had a deep respect for Richard Woolsey who was currently leading _Atlantis_ and was a member of the IOA himself. He had proven himself, but only after he had thrown out a few of the things he had thought would be necessary in communications with other civilizations. Space was a harsh place and it formed one. Not necessarily in a way one would have wanted to though.

“Camile”, Elsa began trying to think about the words she'd best say. Thankfully she had been a ruler once so she wasn't totally inexperienced. “We shouldn't fight against the military. We are in the same boat, quite literally. We should find a way to put aside our differences and to survive together as what we are: humans.”

She could see the metaphorical gears starting to turn in Camile's head. After a few moments Camile began to say something.

“I... I'll think about it.”

“That's all I ask”, Elsa replied with a smile that hopefully showed that she'd appreciate the prevention of any violence, ignoring that for some reason she felt a pang at that thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Our first encounter with aliens that have space ships! Of course viewers of SGU already know these... ;)
> 
> And what's that at the end? Might this be related to the next chapter being titled "Divided"? :P


	14. Divided

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we go again. Took me long enough *sigh*
> 
> I thank everyone who has faved, followed and reviewed this fic :)
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

“You think Rush is right?”

Elsa glanced around the apple core to look at Brody. She shook her head slightly with a little sigh. “I don't know.”

Rush had mentioned earlier that day – the day after his return and the day after their first space battle on _Destiny_ – that the aliens had placed a transmitter, a ship to be precise, on the hull of _Destiny_. When asked about the origin of the knowledge he had brought up the alien who's memory he had accessed back on the alien ship.

But no matter whether he was right or wrong they couldn't risk it that there was indeed a ship and they did nothing. Well, at least _another_ ship, cause they had disabled the transmitters of the ship Rush and Chloe had arrived with. It was a too much of a tempting opportunity to study this alien race and their technology instead of merely jettisoning the ship and be done with it.

Elsa had agreed here. They should try to know as much as possible of the aliens as she doubted that they had left forever after their last standoff. After all if what Rush had said was true and the aliens had been interested in _Destiny_ for a long time already, then they wouldn't give up so fast.

What Elsa didn't know however was the strategy they should employ if the aliens indeed showed up again. Their battle the previous day had brought quite some damages, according to the logs they had access to more than the ship had sustained during each of its encounters with the aliens before the human expedition had arrived. In these cases the ship had merely used its shields to hold out till the FTL countdown had elapsed.

Maybe they should employ a defensive strategy instead of an offensive one? Would Colonel Young agree with that?

Suddenly Elsa's PADD chirped. She reached for the device in her pockets and answered the “call”.

“Here Elsa.” From the feeble beginnings of the telephone on Elsa had learned that she should answer a call with her name first so that the one calling would know who was there on the line. Though those that misdialed more often than not don't get that anyway and just continue to ask for whoever they had intended to call. Of course these misdialings only occurred since people had been able to dial for themselves instead of the switchboard operators.

“ _It's Eli”_ , came the answer from the PADDs speaker. _“We found the ship.”_

Elsa's eyes widened. So Rush's intelligence had been right.

“What's the plan then?”

“ _We'll meet with Colonel Young in the control room and discuss it there. Rush and I are already on our way.”_

“Okay.”

The line went dead. Elsa lowered the device from her ear and gazed at it in abstraction. Unlike her Eli didn't have this deeply ingrained politeness regarding phone calls. If she had been the one ending the call she would have bid her goodbye before hanging up.

A smile tugged at her lips at this thought. To think that nowadays “hanging up” was becoming increasingly seldom. Mobile phones didn't have a hook anyway and even for landline phones it was becoming more common to have wireless ones that needed their base stations only for charging. It was truly fascinating how these things had changed throughout the decades while the terms had embedded themselves in society.

A few minutes later Colonel Young and Lieutenant Scott entered the control room, followed shortly after by Rush and Eli.

“Here's the plan: Lieutenant Scott and I will take the shuttle and destroy that ship”, Colonel Young opened once everyone had settled in.

Well, that plan was definitely simple, but there was one problem with it...

“Aren't you forgetting something, Colonel Young?”, Rush asked.

It seemed that Rush knew that problem as well. Not that unexpected however considering Rush had more time to think about that ship attached to the hull.

“And that would be, Rush?”, Young asked annoyed.

If Elsa would need to guess she'd say the Colonel didn't like that Rush had been right about the alien ship.

“We'll need to redistribute the shield power.”

Elsa had been right, though everyone else in the room looked at Rush in confusion.

“The alien ship's been enveloped in _Destiny's_ shields”, Rush began to explain. “Think about it, the ship's been there for some time already and if the shields wouldn't protect it, it would have been destroyed the first time _Destiny_ entered FTL, so here it is.”

Eli's eyes lightened up. “Oh! So we need to weaken the shields in that area, so that the weapons of the shuttle can destroy it.”

Rush inclined his head towards Eli, thankful that at least one person in the room understood him. Though Elsa didn't know whether he really thought that neither she nor Brody had understood where he was going with this.

“That is indeed the case, Eli.”

“Can you do that?”, Young asked.

“Energy distribution is one of the few systems we have rather good control of”, Elsa supplied.

“'Rather good'?”, Scott interrupted.

“Well... there, uhm, are some restrictions. For example if we're out of FTL and redirect the engine's power to another system, then the ship would redirect that power back again once she'd power up the engines again.”

“Thus not allowing us to keep her out of FTL”, Colonel Young summed up.

Elsa nodded. “Correct.”

“I take it you tried that already?”

“One of the first things we did once we found out that we could control the energy distribution”, Elsa supplied with a shrug.

“Wasn't that a bit reckless?”, Scott interrupted. “You could have stranded us with that.”

“I... uhm...” Elsa blushed. _Why did I have to say that?_

“She acted on my order. I take full responsibility for that”, Rush said, surprising basically everyone in the room, especially Elsa. He was right of course, Elsa had done this on his order, but she hadn't expected Rush to tell everyone that he'd been responsible for that.

A few seconds of silence followed before Colonel Young decided to speak up again. “We'll talk about that later, right now we have to deal with that ship before we jump into FTL again in...”, he turned around to look at the countdown clock, his eyebrows knitted in concentration, “half an hour.”

Elsa had to admit that she was surprised. Young must have learned the Ancient digits by himself as she had never seen him in any of her lessons. Then again knowing these digits was important for their survival, so it was only natural for a soldier like him to learn these.

“Yes, uhm, of course.” If she'd have to guess she'd say that Rush looked relieved. “We'll have dealt with the shield once you've reached the alien ship.”

“Good.” With a curt nod to everyone the Colonel turned around and walked towards the shuttle's docking port, Lieutenant Scott trailing behind.

The other four were working in silence for a few moments before Rush left his console and walked towards one of the room's exits.

“And where are you going to?”, Eli inquired.

“To check on one of the power distribution nodes. It's data connection seems to be, uhm, wonky.”

_Huh?_ Elsa raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Oh, okay...”, Eli replied, but Rush had already left the room.

Eli turned towards Elsa. “Since when does Rush do physical work?”

“I don't know, Eli, I don't know...”, Elsa answered, shaking her head.

Had the aliens done something more to Rush or is this just Rush being... well, Rush; suspicious Rush to be precise. For the sake of the crew she hoped it was the latter.

Finally the shuttle had taken off and was flying towards the alien ship. Elsa kept an eye on it using her controls, but there wasn't much she could have done in an emergency anyway. So she was merely a spectator, just like... just like Anna was in Elsa's life.

A chirping from Brody's PADD ripped her from her thoughts. He checked it and then looked at her.

“Rush wants our help with the, uhm, node, seems like he overestimated himself.”

Well, it certainly wasn't the first time Rush had overestimated himself, but it surely was the first that he admitted it. That didn't make him any less suspicious, but Elsa decided to play along... for now.

“Okay, you know the way?”

Brody nodded. “Yes.”

“Eli, you hold the fort”, Elsa said with a wink and left the control room next to Brody.

* * *

After a short walk Elsa and Brody had reached a closed bulkhead door which Brody opened using the door controls. The room behind was dark, but Elsa could see a couple of boxes and what indeed looked like one of the power distribution nodes, noticeable by the faint glow of the buttons on the access panel. But strangely no Rush and the access panel was closed.

“Where is he?”, Elsa asked as she walked in.

She had walked in a few meters, avoiding a few of the boxes on her way, when she heard the door behind her again. It was closing! She whirled around and saw Brody standing on the other side of the door wings.

“Brody!” She stormed towards the door.

“I'm sorry, Elsa, it's nothing pers-” The remainder was cut off by the closed doors.

Elsa banged her hands on the door. She pressed the door control panel on her side, but nothing happened. The red crystal above the knob told her that the door had been locked.

“Brody!”, she yelled. “Open up!”

One last time she banged her hand at the door, a small patch of ice forming beneath it. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down though that didn't stop ice from spreading around her feet.

What had just happened? Why had Brody locked her in? And why did he say that it was nothing personal? Wait... She thought back to the discussion from the previous day, the one with Camile Wray. Her eyes widened.

“Oh no”, she whispered.

She reached for her PADD and opened a channel to Eli.

“ _'Sup?”_ , came Eli's reply after a few moments.

“Eli, we have a problem. It seems we have a mutiny on our hands. Lock down access to the ship and get someone to get me out of here.”

“ _Wha- right away.”_

Elsa sighed in relief. At least Eli knew when to be serious.

“ _Uhm, Elsa, I can access neither your PADD's position nor the life sign map. Where are you?”_

She swallowed fought the need to swore at this and concentrated on the here and now, most importantly her physical 'here'. She quickly relayed the room's designation that was written in small letters below the door control to Eli and then turned back to her thoughts.

Now... who was in on this mutiny? Aside from Brody both Rush and Camile were rather obvious. What about the remaining civilians? Who could she trust aside from Eli?

She reached for the light switch, but the room didn't get any brighter.

“Great, just great”, she hissed and waved a hand to create a small, glowing and floating sphere of ice.

The room definitely didn't provide much to begin with, but it provided her with what she needed right now: space to pace. And pacing she did, leaving behind an icy trail not dissimilar to a snail's trail. She could have dissolved that, but right now she didn't care.

Instead she wondered what to do now. Once Young and Scott had dealt with the alien ship they'd dock again and then they'd rally the military personnel to end this mutiny. Were any of the soldiers in on this as well? She doubted it. The civilians had probably kept it to themselves considering how Camile had ranted about the military. And Elsa's own closeness with the military had led to her not being seen as an ally, but instead if not an enemy at least an obstacle.

“ _Elsa”_ , Eli spoke from the device in her hand, _“I can't lock access to the ship, there is some kind of transfer of control going on. Apparently whoever's responsible for this has planned this.”_

A transfer of control? But where to could that be? At least there was only one who could have done this.

“It's Rush.”

“ _I... I thought that much.”_

Despite his words Elsa knew that Eli was disappointed. Both her and Rush were basically the young man's mentors here aboard and that one of them betrayed the crew, the ship and especially him like that had to be devastating for him. Hell, she herself felt devastated.

“ _On the bright side Young and Scott destroyed the alien ship and are on their way back.”_

At least something indeed.

“Eli, can you please adjust your PADD so that I can hear what's going on in the control room?”

“ _Sure. Wait a moment...”_ Elsa counted the seconds in her mind and after thirty three Eli's voice returned: “ _Done.”_

“Thank you, Eli. Have you informed Young about our situation?”

“ _Yeah. You can probably imagine that he's rather pissed.”_

No kidding. She herself didn't feel much different, though most of it is probably due to her being locked in a storage room.

“ _Hold on, I'm getting another call... It's Rush.”_

“Put us in a conference call and route it through the communication system for the shuttle as well.”

“ _Will do.”_ A pause. _“Hello Rush, what gives us the honor of your call?”_ Elsa had to suppress a shiver because of the amount of venom that Eli had put into his words.

“ _Whoa, Eli, we're on the same page here!”_ Apparently Rush had noticed the same and wait, what?

“Same page, Rush? You're staging a mutiny, you're the one transferring control of the ship, not Eli, not me, so why should we be even remotely on the same page?”

“ _Ah, hello Elsa. I take it Eli has us in a conference call, right? That with you being locked away and such... Anyway the thing is, we're all civilians, we've got to stick together against the oppressive rule of the military.”_

Elsa snorted. “'Oppressive rule of the military'? Rush, do you even listen to yourself?”

“ _But he's right, Elsa”_ , a different voice interrupted, that of Camile Wray. _“You should know about the problems_ Atlantis _had_ _faced_ _when the military took action.”_

“As if that was any different when Weir or Woolsey had the final say. The Pegasus galaxy is a dangerous one.” She knew she was getting louder with each word, but her frustration took the better of her. “You weren't there, Camile, you haven't seen the deaths that the Wraith brought, the devastation. This isn't a race to be reasoned with, for them we're only food!”

At the end she was yelling and icy tears started to flow as she remembered the suffering she had seen and witnessed in those past five years. Compared to that the journey on _Destiny_ had been a piece of cake so far.

“ _But-”_

“No 'but', Camile. The military is doing what they need to do to ensure our survival. Would everyone keep to the rationing if it wouldn't be for the military enforcing it? And don't forget that the man who's with you is the reason we're stranded here in the first place, not Young, not the military”, Elsa hissed.

Even though she was alone in the room the silence that descended was palpable, at least until the cogwheels at the center of the bulkhead door started to spin. Quickly she got in a stable stance she could fight in, the PADD stored in her pockets and her hands before her to shock anyone who'd dare to attack her with a warning shot.

Finally the doorwings slid apart, revealing a grinning Vanessa James. Elsa immediately relaxed with relief, resisting the urge to hug the woman opposite of her.

“What have you done to lock yourself in a room, Elsa?”, Vanessa asked, cocking her head.

“No time for talk, Vanessa, we have a mutiny on our hands.”

Elsa walked out of her little prison into the direction of the control room, Vanessa walking next to her.

“What?” Clearly Eli hadn't informed Vanessa about what was going on with the surprise evident on her face.

“Rush and Camile staged a mutiny, I don't know who else of the civilians is in with, Eli and me definitely being the exception.”

Upon hearing this Vanessa's face contorted into one of rage and fury. She fastened her hold on her rifle. “Oh those ungrateful cretins!”

“ _You know, we can hear you, Second Lieutenant James and it kinda proves our point”_ , came Camile's voice from Elsa's pocket. Elsa reached for the PADD again, meekly smiling at Vanessa who now was more red from embarrassment than rage.

“ _Eli, we have a problem.”_ It had been a while since Colonel Young had said anything in this dilemma.

“ _No kidding”_ , Eli commented.

“ _Not that right now. We've reached the docking port, but the clamps won't engage.”_

The response was a shocked 'What?', but not only from Eli, but at the same time also from Rush and Elsa. Immediately Elsa increased her pace.

“ _What exactly does that mean?”_ , asked Camile.

“The docking clamps are needed so that the shields envelope the shuttle, to essentially make it part of _Destiny_ ”, Elsa began to explain. “If the shuttle is not in the shields when we jump to FTL...” She quickly glanced at one of the countdown clocks they passed. They had less than five minutes left. “Then the shuttle will be crushed by the ship.”

Elsa could see the shocked gasp of Vanessa and hear the one of Camile.

“ _The transfer of control must have blocked the clamps”_ , Rush reasoned.

“ _You said something like this wouldn't happen, Rush!”_

“Whatever you're doing, Rush, you need to stop this!”, Elsa pleaded.

“ _No, they won't see any reason if we interrupt this. We need to see this through, it will be done till we jump, it will work.”_

“ _Eli, can you interrupt the transfer of control?”_ , Colonel Young asked.

“ _I'm already trying!”_ Eli sounded stressed. Elsa couldn't blame him though. _“But I don't know what exactly Rush is doing!”_

“ _Stop it, Eli”_ , Rush countered. _“The more you try to interrupt it, the longer it will take!”_

“ _Don't stop, Eli”_ , Colonel Young ordered. _“Don't let him influence you.”_

Elsa began to see red. It wasn't easy to anger her – at least that's what she thought – but right now Rush – and also Camile – were doing a good job with that.

“I swear to you, Rush, should we loose the shuttle because of that little stunt of yours, should Young and Scott die, then I _will_ tear this ship apart till I've found you and then I'll freeze you solid. And I'll enjoy doing it slowly and painfully.”

Vanessa looked at her with wide eyes while they both kept running through the corridors.

“ _You are_ threatening _us, Elsa?”_ , Camile asked. _“I thought you didn't want to harm anyone?”_

Elsa stopped dead in her tracks. Camile was right. Why had she said that? She wasn't one to threaten others, especially not with her powers, so why?

“Usually I don't, but usually I'm also not in the middle of a mutiny!”

Elsa and Vanessa began walking again, turning the last juncture that separated them from the control room. Eli looked up and on the one hand she could see his relief, but she could also see his worry and also... fear, fear directed at her. What had she done? Wordlessly the young man pointed at one of the consoles where she could see the transfer going on.

Yep, no real chance to interrupt this. She glanced at the countdown clock. Two minutes. At least not in the time she had available.

“Rush, please, you have to stop this!”

One minute.

“Do you really want to have their blood on your hands, Rush?”, Elsa tried to reason ignoring the threat she had voiced. “Do you want to start your 'rule' with death?”

Forty seconds.

“ _Rush, abort”_ , Camile finally said. _“Now.”_

It took a few moments, but the transfer on the console stopped.

Twenty seconds.

“ _Engaging docking clamps”_ , Young said.

Ten seconds.

“ _Clamps engaged.”_

Five seconds.

“Shields stabilized.”

Jump.

“Colonel Young, you still there?”, Vanessa asked into the room, knowing that her voice would be broadcasted into the shuttle.

“ _Yes, we're still here.”_

Elsa let out the breath she had been holding the last few seconds, stabilizing herself on the console in front of her.

“ _Now let's deal with this little mut-”_

Elsa looked towards Eli with a raised eyebrow.

“What happened?”, Vanessa asked.

“The communication channel to the shuttle had been closed. But not by us and not by them”, Eli explained after a look on his console.

“I have a bad feeling about this”, Elsa said, provoking a small smile on Eli's face.

“ _That's been me, uhm... us”_ , Rush then said. _“We now have control of the ship's systems and closed off the sections containing military personnel.”_

Eli accessed his console and then shook his head. “He's right. We only have some minor systems left and...”

At that moment Colonel Young and Lieutenant Scott ran into the control room.

“What's our status?”, Young asked right away.

Looking irritated for a moment Eli collected himself. “As I was saying: We only have access to some minor systems left. All other systems – at least of those we can control anyway – have been transferred to where ever Rush is. We have one key system left though: life-support.”

Colonel Young immediately became thoughtful. Unlike the military commander on _Atlantis_ , Colonel John Sheppard who more often than not preferred to charge in and then think about a plan – if at all – Young seemed to prefer to make plans beforehand, at least when possible.

“What if we switched off life-support?”

Just as both Elsa and Eli wanted to answer it was Rush who answered. _“_ _If you'd cut us off we'd have about three days. About the same amount you'd be able to go without water with us having control of the water tanks. If it would come to a contest I don't know what the outcome would be, but it wouldn't be pretty._ _”_

“Mute the connection”, Young whispered towards Elsa who turned towards one of the consoles and muted the hidden microphones in the room which also included the microphones of the PADDs – Elsa's and Eli's – in the room. At least that was something that was still under their control, though this was a locally controlled function anyway.

“They can't hear us now”, Elsa stated.

“Any suggestions?”, the Colonel asked.

“You know”, Elsa began. She didn't like what she was about to say, but she had to put the cards on the table so to speak. The Colonel's reaction would tell her whether the “other side” was right in their accusations. “We wouldn't need to switch off the ship's whole life-support system. We could merely do it for the sections they occupy.”

Eli seemed to have the same reservations as he spoke up as soon as Elsa had finished. “But wouldn't that be un-”

Colonel Young however held up a hand, silencing the young man. “And they'd have about three days until they start to become unconscious?”

Elsa thought a bit. “Considering the volume of their side of the ship and that the air is currently in pristine condition... yeah.” She shrugged.

“As Rush said we don't have enough food or more importantly water on our side however”, Eli supplied.

“Would it be possible to decompress the sections?”

Elsa's eyes widened. He wouldn't do that, would he? “Colonel Young, I strongly object to-”

“Would it be possible”, he said again, this time sharper.

Elsa looked down at the floor. “Yes”, she replied weakly.

“Okay. Let's keep that in mind for an emergency. Any suggestions to get to the other side?”

At least the Colonel didn't consider decompression a solution right away. That was something.

Both Elsa and Eli thought about ways to get around the blocked bulkhead doors. There weren't maintenance shafts they could use, so they'd somehow need to get some holes into the doors... holes... _Wait a second?!_ , Elsa thought.

“What if we used the holes in the ship's hull?” Everyone looked at her once she had said that.

“Explain”, Young said.

“ _Destiny_ has plenty of holes in her hull as we all know. We've begun to close them, but on our side the most recent one is from when Chloe had been abducted. On the other side there are still some older ones left.”

“But what about the shields?”, Scott threw in. “We can't control them after all.”

Elsa shook her head. “We won't need to. The shields are still stretched thin enough that in their current configuration one can rather easily pass through them. That's why we have closed of the doors of rooms with such holes.”

“Now we need a diversion. Open the channel again”, Young ordered.

Elsa pressed a button and then nodded, signaling him that Rush and Camile wear now able to listen in again.

“You know that we won't surrender”, Colonel Young said somewhere into the room.

“ _Can't say I hadn't expected that”_ , Rush replied. _“Then what about a trade, Colonel?”_

“A trade? What kind of trade?”, Young asked.

“ _We'll provide you with water and food and as a return we'll get Eli and Elsa.”_

The mentioned two immediately looked at each other, Elsa raising an eyebrow and Eli pointing at himself voicelessly mouthing “me?”.

* * *

Colonel Young had agreed to the trade, but not without a few adjustments behind the scenes. They had managed to put off the trade until the next time _Destiny_ had come out of FTL around five hours later and Elsa had been briefed as their best chance to get control of the other side. Unlike the military personnel she could detain anyone without any harm – at least if her old fears to hurt anyone didn't surface.

It had also turned out that two of the military personnel were on the other side, namely TJ and Airman Dunning – the same who had reported Chloe's abduction the other day. Eli had immediately expressed his opinion that TJ wouldn't switch sides which everyone had agreed to right away. In addition to that they had quite some civilians still on their side, apparently unaware of what was going on.

While Elsa and Eli would be traded for food and water, Colonel Young and Sergeant Greer would leave the ship through one of the holes in the hull on their side, walk along the outside of the ship and reenter it through a hole on the other side.

This way they'd have two teams that could get the ship under their control again.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Scott would wait with a team near one of the closed bulkhead doors until they'd be opened by Sergeant Greer.

Elsa and Eli thus walked along a corridor towards one of the closed bulkhead doors separating the two factions. A Kino was floating behind them which Eli turned around so that those on the other side could see that they were alone as the agreements of the trade had demanded.

A few seconds later the bulkhead door opened and both saw them blinking into the barrel of a handgun.

“Woah!”, Eli exclaimed while Elsa would have nearly shot the pistol out of the other's hand with an ice bolt.

“Keep it down!”, someone shouted. It was Chloe.

“They could be dangerous”, the holder of the pistol, a man, a Manuel Carstens, accountant if Elsa remembered correctly, said. He pointed the pistol at Elsa. “She _is_ dangerous.”

“Put. It. Down”, Chloe hissed and a third person, a woman came around to lower Manuel's arm with the gun. The woman was Teresa Miller, a biologist and one of those people that were _supposed_ to be here on _Destiny_.

Manuel mumbled something about trusting too easily, putting the gun into the back of his trousers after securing it. Then he and Teresa moved crates from their side to just outside the bulkhead door – their part of the trade.

“Come”, Chloe said, a weak smile on her face. The young woman turned around and walked along the corridor, Elsa and Eli following behind.

“So...”, Eli began, “I can't help but notice that you're... I don't know... working with these people.”

Chloe stopped walking and so did Eli and Elsa, both looking at the former in expectation.

“And what did you expect, Eli? That I'm their prisoner? That I'm here against my will?” Chloe got louder. “I _am_ a civilian. Just as _you_.” She pointed first at Eli and then at Elsa. “And _you_.” She continued to speak in a normal voice. “So the real question should be why are you two not with us? Why did we have to trade for you?”

“Because we don't believe that mutiny is the way to go”, Elsa answered. “You accuse the military of making rash decisions, of merely acting out of their own interest and what are you doing? Just. The. Same.” She had stressed the last three words by pushing Chloe's chest with her finger.

At least Chloe appeared to look sorry even if she didn't admit it right now.

“Wait a minute”, Eli said. “Back in the control room... did you distract me?”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

Eli turned his head towards Elsa. “After you had gone earlier, Chloe came in and we talked a bit while keeping an eye on the shuttle. And then your call came and I saw that transfer of control going on on one of the consoles.”

“Eli, no”, Chloe protested. “That wasn't my intention at all. I knew _that_ we'd do this, but I didn't know _when_. Please believe me.”

Eli looked in Chloe's eyes for a moment, then crossed his arms before he spoke again. “Let's assume I do – which I don't – then what? We just go back how things were? Even if you didn't distract me on purpose you were still involved and you didn't tell me.”

“And what if I would have?”, Chloe shouted back in frustration, surprising both Eli and Elsa with her volume. “You would have run to Young and admitted that something was going on, rendering our whole idea moot.”

Eli's caught look told Elsa that Chloe's accusations were right.

“Okay you two.” Eli and Chloe turned to look at Elsa, while the latter pinched her nose, thinking about what best to say. “You two clearly need some time to talk this out, but this time is not now. We have to deal with this mutiny situation first and foremost.” And Eli and Chloe weren't the only ones that _seriously_ needed a talk. “Now, Chloe, which way?”

Chloe pointed her hand towards the corridor in invitation. “This way”, she said and took the lead again.

An uneasy silence descended upon the three for the remainder of their walk, all three caught in their own thoughts. While Elsa also tried to think about the situation she was in, she couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't seen anyone else around. Where were they? Why weren't they walking around the ship like most people did before that? Could it be that not all was gold that glittered, that this “civilian in charge” thing wasn't as good as Camile and Rush had presented it to be?

Finally they had reached their destination. A room that looked like it was originally destined to be a lab, with consoles and strange equipment everywhere. This might also explain why Rush had chosen this room for his takeover: it would have many connections to the remainder of _Destiny_ , thus being a suitable replacement for the control room. And it even had a window. Rush stood behind a console near that small window, but wisely the Ancients had installed the console in such a way that Rush looked into the room instead out into the beauty of space. At least for Elsa that would have been a very big distraction.

“I'll leave you to it”, Chloe said and then left the room again.

“Give me one reason not to turn you into an ice statue”, Elsa blurted out, giving way for her frustration with the whole situation. She crossed her arms as if to prepare to whatever blow Rush would deal her.

Rush looked up from his console and at her, but at first he didn't say anything. It seemed as if he was contemplating what to tell them, probably how much he wanted to _reveal_ to them.

“We're being tracked”, Rush finally said.

“Didn't we just... you know... blow that tracker to smithereens?”, Eli asked and Elsa continued to look at Rush, waiting for the shoe to drop.

“That was one of them”, Rush stated.

“Okay, there's a second one, so what. Let's blow up that as well”, Eli said.

Elsa however knew that Rush wouldn't hesitate like this if it would have been that easy. There was something that he had not told them yet, something important.

Rush sighed, glancing at the console in front of him for a moment before he looked back at the two newcomers.

“It's implanted in _me_.”

There it was. Now the shoe had dropped. Both Elsa and Eli looked on in surprise.

“Implanted? In you? How do you know?”, Elsa asked.

“I had... dreams... about my experience on that alien ship and in them I saw them implanting the tracker. I used a PADD to check for metals in me and for sure found it in my abdominal cavity.”

“The PADD can scan for metals?”, Eli threw in, but Elsa immediately scolded him.

“Eli, not now!”

“Sorry”, he said, blushing in embarrassment. “Wha-what about Chloe?”

Elsa's eyes widened. He was right. If the aliens had implanted something in Rush they might have done the same to Chloe.

Rush however shook his head.

“No, we checked. While she does have dreams, she does not have a tracker implanted. Thankfully.”

“Why didn't you tell Young?”, Elsa asked.

Rush laughed out aloud. “Seriously? _I_ should trust the man who left me behind on a barren planet?”

“But you were caught in a rockslide? He had to assume you were dead or that there was not enough time to rescue you...”, Eli explained.

There was a glinting in Rush's eyes. “Was I really?”

Elsa and Eli looked at each other in shock. Was Rush implying that he wasn't caught in a rockslide? That there had been something going on between him and Young? It wouldn't surprise her, there had been quite a bit of animosity between the two men since they had been stranded here, but leaving someone behind on a planet?

Suddenly Eli's eyes widened as if the puzzle pieces all had come together.

“Eli, what is it?”, Elsa asked.

“I... uhm...”

The console in front of Rush decided to beep at that moment, interrupting whatever Eli was about to reveal. Rush pushed a few buttons and than looked at Elsa and Eli.

“They're here.”

Both Elsa and Eli gulped and walked over to the window behind Rush. It was looking out towards the front of the ship and they could see one of the blocky alien ships hovering some kilometers in front of them – distances were hard to judge in space however. Then a white flash occurred a bit to the right of it and another alien vessel dropped out of whatever fast-than-light travel they were using. A third ship soon joined the other.

“Oh...”, Elsa began, still not daring to curse.

“Crap”, Eli thankfully finished for her.

“We barely managed with one of them, how should we deal with three?”, Elsa asked, turning around towards Rush.

“That is another reason for my... uhm... actions. I think Colonel Young's reaction to use the weapon system was wrong. According to the ship's logs – at least as far as we have access – _Destiny_ always relied on her shields to defend herself long enough she could slip into FTL again”, Rush explained.

Elsa remembered her own research in the logs.

“I've seen the same”, she admitted.

Considering that the ship had to split its power between shields and weapons if the latter were used it was only reasonable to put _all_ the power into the shields. They would be far more formidable this way and considering that they could withstand the stresses of flying through a star the shields themselves wouldn't be a problem per se. Though of course if _Destiny_ would have been in a better shape, in her prime so to speak, then things might be different. Maybe the holes in the hull came from a time when _Destiny_ had to change her strategy? Then again the Ancients always had been more pacifist... maybe not as pacifist as the Nox considering that the Ancients liked to build things that if used incorrectly – or sometimes even correctly – could go boom in spectacular ways, but they usually resorted to weapons last and not first.

“I planned to share this with Young if you hadn't started this Mutiny”, Elsa said.

“And why didn't _you_ tell this to Young?”, Eli inquired from Rush.

Rush huffed. “As if he'd believe me. He's military, Eli. He thinks a good offense is just as good as a solid defense! He needs _proof_ that this will work and I will provide him with that proof!”

That is when realization dawned on Elsa. This mutiny wasn't for the civilians aboard, for Camile's idea of government. No, this was merely for the purpose of _Destiny_ 's survival and that little personal vendetta between Rush and Young.

Rush reached for a button on his console and just then Elsa remembered that right now there were two people walking along the hull of the ship to reach a hole in the hull. And to enter the ship they'd need the shield in its current, unstable state and not its hardened defensive one. She had to buy a bit more time.

“Wait!”, she shouted, barely containing the strangely alluring need to shoot Rush's hand with an ice blast.

Rush looked at her in confusion, raising both eyebrows.

She had to think fast. “Are you, uhm, sure... that the shields will, ehm... hold the pounding of three alien ships?”

“I'm fairly certain, yes. Also the aliens don't want to _destroy_ _Destiny_ , they want to take her in one piece after all.” He reached for the console again.

“And we can't shoot back?”, Eli jumped in, apparently remembering as well what was going on. “At least a little bit?”

Rush shook his head. “No, we can't risk a diversion of the power. This is going to be close anyway with _Destiny_ in her current state. Now...” Rush looked from one to the other. “Any more objections?”

Eli and Elsa looked at each other, but they couldn't think of anything more reasonable anymore, they just had to hope that Colonel Young and Sergeant Greer had managed to get aboard again. Thus both finally shook their heads after a few more moments.

“Good.” Rush pressed a button on his console. “Now if you two would monitor the ship's state?”

Elsa moved over to one of the free consoles, remotely noticing Eli doing the same. Her hands were shaking as she reached for the controls. She should have asked Young to send her a signal on her PADD once they've entered the ship again. This way she wouldn't have to face this agonizing uncertainty. She noticed frost lining her fingers and clenched her fists. Of course it were moments like this that the control of her powers slipped. She inhaled deeply – at least as much as she could without raising too much suspicion – and tried to calm her mind. She had learnedt quite some meditative techniques throughout her life though she had found those taught to her by Teyla on _Atlantis_ as most effective. Might be because her and her people – the Atosians – had a more direct connections with the Lanteans when they had still been among them than the people of Earth had. Thus the techniques were more in tune with Elsa's Ancient heritage.

“They're opening fire!”, Eli exclaimed.

With herself being more calm than moments before she looked her, well, student over. He appeared collected, though forcefully so. His hands were slightly shaking as well and his eyes were darting to the doors through which they had entered the room every few seconds in the hope of seeing the man who they considered their leader.

There was no shaking, no noise, no exploding consoles as the alien weapons impacted the shields.

“Shields are holding, we have a slight drop in power however”, Eli reported.

“Looks like you were right”, Elsa said towards Rush. It wasn't as if she had considered using weapons as the only possible solution, far from it. Her personal preference was to use them as a last resort. But she hadn't known how good – or bad – the shields would fare by themselves, without any power being diverted to the weapons as the last reports about _Destiny_ having been attacked were already a bit older.

Rush shook his head. “We shouldn't count our chickens before they're hatched.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. In all honesty she had expected Rush to brag with him having been right, not such a... sensible answer.

“We need to fire back!”

All three in the room turned towards the new voice coming from the door. Sure enough it was Colonel Young who was standing there and Elsa immediately felt a relief beyond measure.

“Colonel Young, what are you doing here?” Rush didn't hide his surprise for once.

“I'm taking back the ship.” Young walked over to Rush's console and pointed a finger at him. “This isn't over yet.” He turned to Elsa and Eli. “Ready the main canon.”

“No”, Elsa stated firmly.

“No?! Are you now in with them as well?”

Elsa shook her head. “That's not the case. But Rush's approach seems to work better than yours yesterday. We have only slight drops in shield power, we can hold trough this till we jump again. If we use our weapons the shields will fail long before that.”

Before Young could answer another person burst into the room. Camile. “Rush, what's our sta- Colonel Young.” She stopped immediately once she noticed the Colonel as if she'd run into an invisible wall.

The Colonel turned around to look at her. From her position at the side Elsa could see the glare he was sending at the Asian woman.

“Camile”, Young said in a voice that considering the situation was so normal that it sounded even more dangerous – for Camile.

“H-how did you get here?”, Camile asked.

The answer Young would give would be important. Not necessarily the content of the answer itself, but whether he would be open enough with Camile, open enough with the civilian part of the crew. Maybe this way they would be able to come out of this scarred but stronger.

“Through holes in the ship and a space walk”, Young finally answered.

Elsa felt the relief overcome her. That was a first step and Elsa was thankful that Young had been willing to do it. So there was still a chance.

Young turned his attention back to Elsa, Eli and Rush. “So you're saying we should just sit this out and when we're in FTL again we're done with this?”

While Elsa and Rush both wanted to confirm this Eli stammered around. “I, uhm, we, ehm...”

“Eli?”, Young fixed the young man with a glare.

“Rush has an alien tracker implanted”, he finally blurted out.

Rush immediately turned and stared daggers at Eli.

“What?!”, Young exclaimed and turned to Rush. “Why didn't you say anything?”

Rush didn't even need to think about an answer it seemed. “'Cause there was the chance that you'd have just thrown me out of the airlock. Just like you got rid of me on that planet.”

“So much for 'for the sake of the crew'”, Young mumbled, nearly inaudible.

He turned a bit, so that his attention was on all three behind their consoles again.

“I take it the aliens will find us again as long as we have that tracker.”

All three nodded.

“Can we block the signal?”

“ _Destiny_ seems to be equipped with an impressive array to both monitor and manipulate various frequencies, but we don't yet have access to the latter and the former is restricted as well”, Elsa explained. “That might also be why we haven't detected the transmitter yet, cause it's sending in a frequency or a form of communication that we don't have access to currently.”

Just then Lieutenant Scott entered the room, followed by TJ, Chloe and Airman Dunning.

“Sir, I've freed TJ”, Scott said after he had righted himself a bit. “Greer had reported that he's taken the mess hall and is keeping it and the civilians in it under guard.”

So their plan had worked. Greer had managed to open the blast doors for a group of military and they had taken key positions, most importantly the mess hall where all the civilians on this side of the ship had been gathered.

“Your little mutiny is over”, Young then said to Camile who first endured his gaze. But once the Colonel had looked away to talk with TJ she looked towards the ground, her face showing her defeat.

“TJ, Rush has an alien transmitter in his body, I need to you to do an operation.”

The woman gasped. “Sir, I'm only a medic, I don't know whether I can do this not to mention that we don't have the instruments for that.”

“Then we'll call in support. Any volunteer?”, he looked around the gathered people in the room and then Chloe stepped forward.

“I'll do it.”

“Colonel Young, are you sure that is a good idea?”, Rush threw in. “What if the connection is interrupted halfway in?”

Elsa shuddered at that thought. That might indeed turn into a mess. Literally.

“Then TJ will have to take over”, Young said while fixing the mentioned woman with his eyes. There it was again the warm and supportive gaze that Elsa knew from the man.

“I don't think we'll be able to do a big scale operation though”, TJ said with a sorry look towards Rush. “And for a minimal invasive one we're not having the necessary instruments...”

At that Eli jumped into the discussion. “I have something that could help here!”

Elsa laughed, a hand hiding her mouth. He was working rather well at becoming known as an inventor on the ship. First the Kino-sled and now whatever he had planned today. And a few other, mostly Kino related gimmicks here and there.

* * *

Things had gone fast afterwards. Rush, TJ and Camile had gone to the infirmary while Scott and Chloe had gone to the stone room to bring in someone more experienced with such surgeries. Meanwhile Colonel Young had stayed in the lab room together with Elsa and Eli – it would have been to dangerous to transfer the controls back to the control room while they needed the shields to keep the aliens at bay. Shields that still did a good job, but the strain they were put under was noticeable. It would be a close one. According to Eli and Elsa's calculations they'd get into FTL not long before the shields would fail.

The surgery had been going on for nearly half an hour – thanks to Eli having reworked a Kino's sensor as an endoscopic camera using minimal invasive surgery – when Camile's voice came out of Elsa PADD lying on the console.

“ _We lost the stone connection. What happened?”_

The eyes of everyone present widened, knowing that this meant that Chloe had been thrown back into her body, probably with instruments in her hand that went deep into Rush's body. Elsa shuddered at that thought.

To distract herself she checked the console and picked up her PADD to answer.

“The alien weapons impacting the shields are saturating the subspace around us, effectively blocking the subspace communication of the stones.” Elsa sighed. “I'm sorry, but TJ will be on her own now.”

The life of Rush would be in TJ's hands now. The woman already had some lessons back on Earth thanks to the stones, but surgery like this in an environment like this... Elsa shook her head. Once they would manage to get everyone back to Earth TJ would have medical experience that no one else had.

“You think they're doing that on purpose?”, Eli asked her.

Elsa shook her head. “No, I don't think so. They might know that we use the communication stones by now, but I doubt that they care about blocking it. Also from what I can see here”, she waved at her console, “it might as well be a side effect of the damages _Destiny_ had sustained during the years.”

“Speaking of which”, Colonel Young said, “what's our status?”

“Less than five minutes remaining, shields are still holding”, Elsa reported.

“ _The transmitter's been destroyed. TJ is stitching up Rush now”_ , Camile's voice reported through Elsa's PADD.

“Glad to hear”, Elsa answered. “How is everyone?”

“ _Chloe's a bit shaken that she had returned in the middle of the operation. TJ is alright and has performed very well. And Rush had woken up right in the middle.”_

Again all three people in the room looked at each other in surprise. TJ had mentioned that she'd use the alien venom they had collected on the jungle planet as an anesthetic, but they weren't yet sure how the dose would need to be.

“ _TJ had given him another injection and he sunk right back into unconsciousness, but it was uncanny at best.”_

Then Colonel Young held out his hand, silently requesting Elsa's PADD. She handed it to him.

“Once we're in FTL and TJ no longer needs your assistance meet me at the mess hall. We still have some business to finish.”

Yeah, right... the mutiny thingie...

“ _Understood, Colonel Young.”_

Just as Young handed back the PADD a wave of colorful, optical distortion washed through the room. _Destiny_ had finally entered FTL.

“Well, I have to admit that Rush's idea of merely relying on the shields worked”, Young said to no one specific before he turned to Elsa and Eli. “Ensure that we can transfer control back to the control room as soon as possible.”

Both nodded and the Colonel turned around and walked out of the room.

Elsa shared a quick glance with Eli. “You can manage alone, Eli?”

He nodded. “Yeah, go and show them how things are done, Your Majesty.” He even did a mock bow.

Elsa shook her head at Eli's antics, though she did so with a smile and followed after their military commander.

The two of them reached their destination in silence, Elsa mainly thinking about how their system of government should be. As they entered the mess hall she gasped. She knew of course that quite some civilians had been in here, but that they had been held at gunpoint by Greer, Vanessa and other soldiers and had been ordered to stay on the ground, that she hadn't expected.

“Is everyone alright?”, she asked immediately.

“Aside from guns pointed at us, we're alright”, Brody said with a wave of his hand and immediately Elsa glared at him. He gulped right away. She hadn't forgotten that it was him who had locked her up and whatever his reasons were this time it was her who would bear a grudge.

“Everything's under control”, Greer answered then.

“Well, the mutiny's over”, Colonel Young said and just then Camile entered the room as well. “Go to your quarters, it's been a long day.”

The soldiers that guarded the room went into a relaxed stand, lowering their weapons while the civilians slowly got up from the ground and shuffled out of the room.

“You simply let them go?”, Greer asked his superior officer.

Young shook his head. “It wouldn't do to detain them. We need them as much as they need us.”

“I wouldn't be so sure about that”, Camile interjected.

Elsa rolled her eyes and decided to take things into her own hands. Just before Young was able to retort to Camile's comment Elsa had righted herself, using a bit of her ice powers to make herself more imposing and in her best queen voice she said: “Once Rush is awake again we four _will_ talk about this and we _will_ find a solution that we'll _all_ live by, am I understood?”

The effect of her words were immediate. Both Young and Camile turned to her with wide eyes – Elsa thought she could see a surprised Vanessa as well – while Greer trained his weapon on her.

“Lower your weapon, Sergeant Greer, before you hurt yourself”, Elsa hissed.

In his defense he didn't flinch even a bit. Though she could see a little bit of doubt about his own abilities in his eyes.

“Do it, Sergeant”, Young finally ordered and Greer lowered his weapon. He turned towards Elsa again. “We'll try it your way, this time.” He then left the room, the other soldiers trailing behind.

“You think you'll find a suitable solution for this for everyone?”, Camile asked once the military was out of earshot and the two of them were alone in the mess hall.

“We have to, Camile”, Elsa replied, “at least if we want to survive this together.” She turned from looking at the exit of the room towards the Asian woman. “But every side will have to make compromise, it won't be able to go on like this.”

“Fair enough”, Camile said. “See you then?”

“Yes, see you then.”

With that Camile left the room as well, leaving Elsa to her own thoughts. She walked over towards the window which showed the colorful streamers of the FTL travel and the stars that slowly moved by. She let out a sigh.

“And here I take things into my own hands again”, she whispered with a shake of her head. Hadn't she told herself that she wouldn't do this anymore, that the time of her as a leader had come to an end? Some things didn't change it seemed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this mutiny had been averted. Despite Elsa having more originally sided with the military she had to learn as well that not all is gold that shines. There is no black and white and everyone has made mistakes and they'll need to live with them...  
> Will this be the last we hear about the differences between the military and the civilians? Will Elsa fall into a leadership role again? Probably we all need a little bit of 'Faith' now :P


	15. Conundrum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go again. You may wonder why this chapter is titled "Conundrum" instead of "Faith". Well, the answer is that this chapter exploded a bit and so I had to split it in two. Instead of calling it "Faith, part 1" and "Faith, part 2" I used the producer's example of splitting the original "Fire" episode into "Darkness" and "Light". What's the second part called? Well, you will find out soon enough.
> 
> Also let me take the time to thank everyone who has favorited, followed or even reviewed the story (on that note: I really appreciate reviews).
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

“I've said that I'm sorry, Elsa! It was nothing personal!”

Elsa could literally see the frustration rolling off of Brody, with him probably being close to a temper tantrum, but right now she didn't care.

It was the day after the mutiny and her and Eli had already returned the control functions back to the Control Interface Room – which had been rather easy as the functions had never truly left the room, they had only been suppressed by the laboratory that Rush had acquired. Some time afterwards Brody as well as Lisa Park had appeared and Elsa still had to settle the problem that it had been Brody who had locked her up.

“I trusted you! And yet at the first occasion you stab me in the back!”, she shot back.

“We had to get you out of the way!”, Brody exclaimed. “You would have messed things up, both with your powers and your knowledge about the systems!” Brody's eyes widened as he noticed what exactly he had just said. Both Lisa and Eli looked more than just a bit uneasy at that.

“Well”, Elsa hissed, “seems like that's exactly what I've done.”

She noticed how Brody seemed to shrink a bit behind his console.

“What's... going on?”

Everyone turned around to look at the source of the new voice and once Elsa noticed who was standing there, wheezing, bent-forward and supporting himself on the wall she sprinted forward and gave the man her support, despite him being the reason for that whole mutiny.

“Dr. Rush!”, she said, for once using his honorific again, her anger at Brody all but forgotten. “Should you even be out of bed already?”

“We have work to do”, he replied with a wave of his hand, his eyes weakly scanning the room's inhabitants.

“You know, mind tricks only work on the weak minded”, Eli threw in and right away Elsa turned around and shot him a glare that would have frozen him instantly into an icicle if she would have put any of her power into it. “Sorry”, he said and turned back to his console.

Elsa helped Rush towards the chair behind _his_ console. Of course he didn't thank her in any way, but honestly she hadn't expected anything in return. She should still be sour at his actions from the previous day – and while he _might_ have saved the ship she definitely didn't agree with the way he did that – but right now she only saw a man who's just woken up from surgery on a ship that wasn't equipped for things like that – or at least they hadn't found said equipment yet aside from the medical bed that they'd still need to adjust for human physiology.

And then there was the talk she wanted, no _needed_ to have with Young, Wray and Rush. Things couldn't go on like they had, they had to bury this animosity, they had to grow together, be one crew if they wanted to survive this, if they wanted to get back home again. But she'd give Rush some more time to recover; it wouldn't do for him to collapse right in the middle of the meeting, especially considering that she intended to lock the four of them into a room until they've reached an agreement.

“Dr. Brody, why don't you take Dr. Park to fix the second shuttle? Would be good to have a backup just in case.”

All eyes in the room turned towards Rush.

“But what about the... uhm... the...”, Eli stammered, “body of the Senator?”

“He's right”, Lisa jumped in. “We not only need to get him out of there, but we also need to deal with his body afterwards. Do we want to keep his body around till we get home again or do we want to give him a funeral on one of the planets? Or do we merely throw him into space or the Stargate?”

Elsa had to suppress a giggle as she saw the completely lost look on Rush. She'd need to mark this in her calendar. Or maybe she should start writing a diary?

Then she shook her head.

“We should ask Chloe and maybe her mother. It's their father and husband. I can keep his body cold however.” For the last sentence she had allowed her hand, that she had raised, to coat over with absolutely clear, flawless ice.

The others had agreed and while Brody and Park went off to start fixing the shuttle Elsa had been given the task to talk with Chloe. She had argued that Eli was her friend, but everyone had agreed that Elsa would have more experience to deal with such things. She hated it that they had been right.

Thus, not much later, she found herself in front of Chloe's quarters and pressed the button that would announce her presence. For a while no answer came and she wondered whether she should have checked the watch for the time, but then the cogwheels of the door began to spin and the wings of the door slid apart, revealing a rather sleepy looking Chloe.

“Elsa?”, she said, trying to blink the sleep out of her eyes.

“Hi Chloe. I'm sorry to disturb you. I can come back later if you want?” Elsa half turned her body to signify that she'd indeed be willing to leave, no harm done.

What she hadn't expected however was that Chloe reached out with one of her hands to grab Elsa's wrist. Elsa blinked in surprise and looked first at her caught wrist and then at the woman who had caught her.

“No, it's alright. Come in.” Chloe turned around and led Elsa into her room.

The room was clearly a one person room, unlike Elsa's. The bed was smaller, there was a table with only one chair and only one window without any desk. Anna had indeed chosen wisely.

Faintly Elsa could hear an “Of course I did. I care for you” and wondered whether that was merely her imagination or whether Anna had indeed just whispered that to her.

Chloe led Elsa to the chair where Elsa sat down while Chloe herself took a place on the bed near her.

Elsa chose the moment to take a better look at Chloe. While Elsa had obviously managed to wake up the young woman, at least judging by the clothes she was wearing, she still tried to look presentable and regal. Elsa remembered that she herself had been the same when she had been the Queen. Things had begun to change however once she had stepped down. Slowly but surely a bit of laxity had crept in. Oh, if she needed to she could still look like Her Majesty after only a few hours of sleep, but usually she didn't need to and more often than not she didn't care either.

“It's... uhm... it's not about the mutiny, is it?”, Chloe said after a few moments, avoiding eye contact.

Elsa let out a sigh and shook her head. “No, it's not. It's about your father.”

Chloe's head swept around faster than Elsa would have thought possible and Chloe now fixed Elsa with a glare that would have made her cower in fear if she hadn't known how to deal with that.

“What about him?”, Chloe hissed.

“You know... his body is still in the shuttle.”

Chloe nodded slowly.

“Rush wants Brody and Lisa to work on it and thus he needs to get out of there. Now the question is what to do with his body.”

Chloe quirked an eyebrow and if not for the situation Elsa would have been proud of her for that gesture. Had she just really thought that? Anna clearly had have more influence on Elsa than she would have been ready to admit openly.

“You see”, Elsa began to explain, “there are basically two variants: give him some kind of funeral – on a planet, with a Stargate whatever – or keep him frozen until we're going back to Earth. Though that might take a while.”

“And your, uhm, magic would keep him frozen without further... decay?”

Elsa nodded. “It would even keep up without me once I've set it up and no further harm would come to your father's body.”

“I don't know”, Chloe mumbled, but Elsa could still hear her.

She reached out and placed her hand on top of Chloe's which was resting on her legs. Elsa squeezed the other hand before she said: “Maybe you want to talk with your mother about this.”

“I can do this alone!”, came Chloe's immediate reply.

Elsa retracted her hand. “I know. But it's her husband as well. Don't you think she should have a bit of say in this?”

Chloe blushed and turned away again. “You're right.”

Elsa could see the tears that were slowly but surely preparing to start their journey along Chloe's cheeks.

“Would you... would you please keep him on ice until I've talked to her?”, Chloe asked, looking at Elsa again.

Elsa gave the other a small smile. “Of course. We'll find an unused room where I'll lay him out.”

She then stood and walked towards the room's doors.

“Elsa?”, Chloe called after her and Elsa turned around again. “Thank you.”

Elsa gave another smile, this time wider. “You're welcome.”

* * *

 

After her visit to Chloe and before her return to the control room Elsa had visited Lisa and Brody. The airlock that had started the misery all those weeks ago had already been repaired some time in between and so Brody was welding a piece of metal to the hole that once had been a window of the shuttle while wearing one of the space suits. Lisa had told her that they had already moved the dead senator to a nearby empty storage room, so Elsa had gone there and made sure that the corpse wouldn't decay any further and that he looked at least a bit decent. At least as decent as one could make a corpse lying on a pedestal made of ice surrounded by a cover of transparent ice.

“You talked with Chloe?”, Eli asked once Elsa had taken her position behind one of the consoles of the control room again.

She nodded. “Yes, I have. She'll talk with her mother at the next opportunity.”

“Uhm... you think the, uhm, mutiny changed anything regarding the stones?”, Eli asked.

Elsa looked at him confused and even noticed glanced at Eli for a moment.

“What do you mean?”, Elsa inquired.

“Did, uhm, the Colonel impose any, uh, restrictions regarding their use for the... civilians that had been part of the mutiny?”

“Ah.” Elsa shook her head. “Not that I'm aware of. But even if he would I'd made sure that this restrictions would be lifted as soon as possible, cause the contact to Earth is too important for the people stranded here.”

Eli nodded in understanding and looked back at his console.

A few moments later the mentioned Colonel entered the room.

“Good morning.” He took a look at Rush. “Shouldn't you be in bed?”

Rush turned halfway towards Young. “I'm awake. So I thought I'd better do something useful. Like ordering Drs. Brody and Park to repair the shuttle.”

“Did TJ clear you?”

Rush scoffed. “What do you think?”

“So you left the infirmary without TJ having okayed you.”

“Well, he walked in here supporting himself on the wall, so okay, not so much”, Eli threw in which earned him a surprised look from Young and a glare from Rush. Elsa herself stifled a giggle.

Colonel Young then rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You'll at least go back for a checkup?”

“As long as I don't have to...” A whining noise occurred and for a moment a wave of colorful distortion passed through them. “... stay there.”

“Well, at least we've got something to do. I'll tell Scott to assemble a team at the Stargate.”

Elsa looked at her console, surprised by what she was seeing there. “Uhm, Colonel? Rush?” Both men and Eli as well looked at her. “The gate's not dialing.”

“What?”, all three said.

At once everyone in the room looked at the countdown clock that was hanging on the wall behind Elsa. It was dark. No countdown.

Rush played a bit with his own console. “There's indeed no Stargate in range. Nor is there any system documented.”

“Did _Destiny_ intend to recharge?”, Young asked.

This time Eli answered. “No, we've still got plenty of fuel till we need to charge again.”

“Then why did she drop out in the middle of nowhere?”

Elsa had checked the sensor reading that they had access to while the others had talked. “It's not as empty as it seemed. We're getting readings on a star system directly ahead of us.”

“What?!”, Rush exclaimed.

Elsa pressed a few buttons and the holographic display appeared amidst them. “It turned up on the sensors as soon as we dropped out of FTL. According to the database of the seed ships there should be no star however.”

“Hmm, if _Destiny_ did indeed not know about the star then this would explain why we dropped out of FTL.” Everyone now looked at Rush for an explanation. “We've reached the gravity well of the system, at least as far as the ship could go in using FTL. And now _Destiny_ probably wants to fly through the system so that she can engage her engines again.”

“How long?”, Young asked after a few seconds.

“Uhm...”, Rush stammered, but both Elsa and Eli were already working on their consoles.

Elsa managed to beat her protege by a few moments and displayed _Destiny_ 's course on the holographic display.

“A month”, she stated. “It should take us roughly one month to reach the point where we can jump into FTL again. At least judging by the distance we left it in the first hand.”

“A month...”, Young repeated. “That will be four rather boring weeks.”

Elsa noticed that Eli was pouting, probably due to her having beat him to _Destiny_ 's course.

“Well”, Rush said, getting Young's attention, “we could use the time to further explore the ship.”

Elsa used the moment that both Rush and Young were looking towards each other to send a small snowball towards Eli which hit him in the face. The young man immediately glared at her, prompting her to stifle a giggle. Just then the other two men in the room turned towards them again, looking at Elsa and Eli as if they knew that something was going on.

She had to admit that she hadn't felt that young and mischievous since after the Great Thaw. Her and Anna had spent quite some time to drive the castle staff, mostly Kai, Gerda and the cook nuts with their mischief. And she felt great!

“Do you two have anything to add?”, Colonel Young asked, nearly raising an eyebrow.

Elsa shook her head, but blushed a bit, feeling more like being eight years old again.

“Actually there is”, Eli stated and Elsa took note that she'd probably get payback right away. “There's a planet in the system and from what we can tell it's got a breathable atmosphere and lots of green.”

The planet in question appeared on the holographic screen amidst the representation of _Destiny_ 's course. It seemed as if the planet was just between the legs of the parabola that _Destiny_ was going to follow.

“We'll be in shuttle range shortly, will stay in range for around two days and when we come around we'll be in contact again for a while before we leave the system forever”, Eli explained.

Elsa raised an eyebrow. How likely was it that a planet like that was just at the right position when they dropped in? That was much too convenient to be a coincidence.

“Then let's put together a team to check out that planet.” Colonel Young reached for his radio, but before he could key it he looked at Elsa. “I'd like one of you to accompany the team as well. Elsa?”

“Me?”, she asked in surprise, nearly mimicking Eli's reaction from the previous day to point a finger at herself.

“Do you have any degree from your long life that would be useful here?”

“I... uhm... well, I _did_ study geology, biology and meteorology some time ago. Though I've tried to keep up to date in all the subjects I had graduated in I don't have much practical experience nowadays in most of them.”

Colonel Young waved her off. “That should be enough. I'd like you to go with the team down to the planet. Try to find out whatever you can in a few hours then return so that we might do another trip.”

* * *

 

The shuttle had been packed full of people, at least as many as the shuttle allowed, namely seventeen. Lieutenant Scott had been picked as pilot and leader of their group, Lieutenant Tamara Johansen should ensure that any edibles they brought with them would be healthy and a few of the scientists – among them Elsa herself – should ensure that the planet itself, its fauna and flora were alright. A further group of soldiers, among them Sergeant Greer accompanied them to keep them safe.

Elsa was seated at one of the sensor stations of the shuttle, keeping an eye on the planet as they closed in. Up to now the planet looked as lovely as a planet could get. Breathable atmosphere, moderate temperatures basically all around except for the poles, fluid water and no sign of pollution. In short: the perfect world. Too perfect in her mind. She was sure there was another shoe going to be dropped sooner or later.

“Any place where we should touch down?”, Scott asked, glancing at her.

Elsa shook her head. “It all looks the same. Lovely places all around.”

A few minutes later they had landed. Scott had picked a lovely meadow which was surrounded by a forest with a few small lakes nearby. They were all standing in the rear part of the shuttle, waiting for Scott to open the ramp that would allow them their first breath of this foreign atmosphere.

He pressed the button, the ramp opened and right away they were assaulted by the fresh breeze of the planet. It was nothing like the atmosphere on _Destiny_ or the shuttle, but instead it reminded her of the fresh air in her home, before the industrialization started to pollute the air.

Once the ramp had lowered they filed out, the scientists in the center surrounded by the military personnel. Elsa looked around and savored both the sight as well as the feeling of being planetside again. Up to now she only had visited the ice planet – which had resonated with her for completely different reasons – since she had been on _Destiny_ , so this was her first trip without any environmental suit and – as a pang in her mind told her – without a Stargate.

This planet and this whole solar system were still a mystery, a mystery that had yet to be solved.

“Okay everyone”, Elsa spoke up. She had been designated by both Colonel Young and Dr. Rush as the leader of the scientists on this expedition with basically only Lieutenant Scott above her on the ladder. “We have around four hours to find out as much as possible about this planet before we head back to _Destiny_. We need samples of plants and seeds and if we can find some then even some meat and tissue samples of animals.”

“Uh, yeah, I could do with some huntin'!”, Sergeant Greer threw in.

Elsa turned around and fixed him with a glare.

“What? I'd take you along as well. Those ice bolts of yours would probably be useful”, he said with a grin. “Or aren't you up for the thrill of a hunt, princess?”

Elsa instinctively straightened her back, taken her much more authoritative queenly demeanor. “I'll have to inform you, Sergeant Greer that both my parents during my childhood as well as my brother-in-law during my regency have taken me on various hunting trips.” She noticed that the others around were looking at her with curious eyes, leeching off this small tale from the past off her lips. “And I'm not only versed in hunting itself, but if necessary I'd be able to gut as well.”

Here she noticed two female scientists of the team – a chemist and a physicist – as well as Dr. Caine turn away with an ill look and a hand in front of their mouths while the others as well as the soldiers were all unperturbed – with Greer looking at her with interest. Mentally she shrugged. It had come with her father's teachings to learn that and Kristoff had merely helped her refresh the knowledge.

With a roll of her eyes Elsa continued her instructions: “Anyway. Every scientist will be accompanied by a soldier to be on the safe side, possible exceptions of TJ and me. Don't ditch them and don't use them as your mule.” There was laughter all around before she clapped her hands once. “Now let's make the time count!”

Slowly the group around the shuttle dispersed and Elsa took the chance to take one last deep breath before she as well let out the scientist in her.

As a first measure she'd use her senses. Those weren't any accurate measurements, sure, but she could take stock of her surroundings this way.

From behind her came a low humming noise which was probably some component of the shuttle. She could hear the grass that reached to her knees bending in the slight wind as well as the leaves on the trees. What she missed however were flying animals and insects. There was no chirping of crickets, no birds in the sky, no nothing. Did the flora on this planet only pollinate by wind? That would probably mean that there would be no flowers, cause the plants wouldn't need them to attract any insects. But really, no animals on this whole planet? That would definitely be a first. She had been on many planets in the past six years, read reports of even more planets and at least the reports of the scientists had _always_ mentioned insects or something insect like. Even the planets they had been on from _Destiny_ had some kind of animals and they had been as far from Earth and the whole Milky Way as one could get. Okay, not really, as there were still billions of light-years or possibly an infinity of light-years ahead of them...

_Well, time to chan_ _g_ _e place._ She picked a direction into which no one had gone, nodding to the lone soldier who had to stand guard at the shuttle. He nodded back with a smile, probably happy that she had acknowledged him at all.

She walked towards a chain of mountains though she wouldn't reach them in the time they'd have on this planet. Like the mountains back home in Norway they were snowcapped and she felt herself reminded of the North Mountain and her ice palace located upon it.

Soon she reached the forest line that surrounded the meadow they had landed upon and the feeling that something was wrong with this planet came back with full force. Back on Earth she had been in various forests, both cultivated and not. She'd been in the last remaining European primeval forest on the border between Poland and Belarus as well as the tropical jungle both as part of her studies and out of curiosity and she could say for sure that _this_ forest was not a wild one. There was no real undergrowth, too few fallen trees, all in all the evidence pointed to this being a cultivated forest. But then where were the cultivators? They couldn't have left this place for too long either. Five years maybe ten tops.

Then Elsa looked at the trees themselves, especially those that were carrying fruit. She still had to see or even hear any insects not to mention larger animals and yet here she was standing in front of a tree that held berries that looked a bit like purple strawberries growing in bundles like grapes. Why would a tree produce such fruit if there weren't any animals to spread them?

Or was this planet a failed colonization attempt? It didn't look that failed however. The shuttle's sensors hadn't noticed any toxics in the atmosphere and as evidenced the vegetation flourished without problems.

She crouched and looked at the ground below the tree she was studying. There were no traces of decayed fruits on the ground or of young saplings. It was as if the falling fruit would just disappear without a trace.

Shaking her head in wonder she got up again and put a whole bundle of the fruit in her sample container. Maybe they could grow these on _Destiny_ if they should prove non-poisonous.

She continued on through the forest until she reached a small clearing that consisted primarily of a small lake. The water looked absolutely clear and it was rimmed with stones of various sizes. Again she felt herself reminded of Arendelle, but this time the lakes located in the mountains, the same lakes that ice harvesters like Kristoff would visit in winter to retrieve the ice for the people.

“It's beautiful, isn't it?”

Elsa looked up and saw Anna sitting on one of the larger stones that surrounded the lake. She was slightly bent-back, resting her upper body on her hands behind her while her bare feet were dangling in the water – though there were no waves, no sign of her presence in the water.

“Yes, it definitely is.” Elsa stepped onto one of the boulders next to Anna's and looked into the calm waters. “It reminds me of the lakes of home.”

Anna hummed her approval. “I know.”

Elsa shook her head with a smile. “Of course you do.” She looked into the lake, studying the ground filled with colorful stone pebbles that looked as if it was just out of reach. However she knew better that the refraction of the water was playing a trick on her. Nevertheless she frowned after she had studied the lake for a while. “And yet, it's nothing like home. It's lifeless.” Elsa made a gesture with her arm, enclosing the whole lake. “Only plants, not a single animalistic life form, not even in the waters, the origin of life.”

“Isn't it arrogance if you think you, as in you humans, think that you know what life has to look like?” Anna looked at Elsa with a serious expression that the older sister has seen only very seldomly. “You think it's too far fetched that a planet could develop an elaborate fauna without any flora.”

Elsa wanted to comment, but Anna held up her hand.

“You're right.”

Elsa shook her head in surprise. “Wait, what? I'm right?”

“Of course you are, sis”, Anna replied with a smile. “You are very intelligent after all and more often than not you can trust your instincts.”

“So... something is wrong with this planet, this solar system?”

Anna cocked her head. “I wouldn't say wrong. But something is definitely different, though I must not tell you more.”

Elsa pinched the bridge of her nose. “Those pesky rules of non-interference.”

Anna immediately brightened, changing her position on the stone, so that she now knelt on it. “I know, right?!”, she exclaimed, jumping up and down on her knees.

Elsa snorted, enjoying all those sides that Anna presented to her. “You know, jumping up and down on a rock on ones knees usually tends to hurt.”

Anna stopped being giddy and looked down at the rock and her knees. Then she shrugged and looked back at Elsa again. “Had never stopped me in the past when I'd been still corporal.”

Elsa sighed. “Yeah, I remember bandaging your knees more often than not.”

“I liked you bandaging me”, was Anna's meek reply. “At least you didn't scold me as much as Gerda did when I went to her.” She looked out at the lake. “Just like Mama”, she added in a whisper, but Elsa had heard nevertheless, the pang of the loss of their parents immediately reaching her.

“And now I've spoiled the mood, have I?”, Anna asked.

“It's al...”, Elsa had started to say, but then she caught herself. No, it wasn't alright. She shook her head. “It wasn't the first time, Anna, and it won't be the last. Their loss will always accompany us. We'll have to live with that.”

Anna looked at her again, a small smile on her lips. “Would you stay with me for a while? Simply enjoying the sight?”

“I...” She had to collect more samples, do more exploration of the planet in the time she had. But then again when had been the last time she had simply enjoyed herself in the company of her sister? Back on _Atlantis_ that much was sure. They had both sat on one of the piers looking at the endless ocean that surrounded the floating city.

“Of course”, Elsa finally said with a wide smile on her face.

She made herself comfortable on the boulder she sat on, the beautiful sight of the lake with the mountain range in the background in front of her, and her sister at the edge of her view. She closed her eyes and relaxed for the first time in weeks.

* * *

 

Elsa had spent nearly all the remaining time with Anna and only on her way back to the shuttle had she collected more samples of plants, fruits and seeds – and she nearly had forgotten a sample of the lake's water as well if Anna hadn't reminded her.

Around the shuttle was already quite some commotion, though Elsa couldn't yet tell whether everyone was here or not.

_Only one way to find out._

“Everyone's back already?”, she asked once she was in close enough so that everyone could hear her.

Lieutenant Scott turned towards her. “Dr. Inman and Airman Peece are still -” He looked over her shoulder into a direction that she hadn't come from. “Ah, there they are.” He turned his gaze back to her. “We're good. Everything alright?”

Elsa looked behind her, seeing a pair of two women walking from the forests towards them. One was in civilian clothes with brunette hair while the other one with short black hair wore the camo fatigues of a marine. Both looked a bit tousled, prompting Elsa to send both of them a knowing glance which in turn lead to a blushing of the two women.

“I got my samples.” Elsa turned her attention back to Lieutenant Scott and pointed at the rucksack on her back. “Here everyone okay as well?”

“Aside from Greer playing food taster everything's good.”

Elsa's eyebrows shot up. “What has he done?”

Said Sergeant came towards the two. “Ate forbidden fruit he did”, he commented with a thin smile. “Got a problem with that?”

Elsa glared at him. “ _I_ don't have a problem with that. But if your foolishness results in unnecessary work for TJ”, she vaguely gestured in the medic's direction, “then we two will have a problem with eachother, savvy?”

“You're not my superior, you can't punish me.”

Well, technically he was right, but she wouldn't let something like that stop her. After all she still had the plan to _order_ Young, Rush and Camile to an extensive talk among the four of them.

Also Greer likely wanted to assert his superiority over her. Something that didn't sit well with her, so she decided not to step away from him, but instead to enter his personal space. It turned out that she was slightly taller than the man in front of her as she had to look down to meet his eyes.

“I won't let that stop me, Ronald Greer.” Yeah, she knew the man's first name, she knew most of the first names of the crew by now. “Learn to follow the orders of others, restrain yourself a bit and we will get along just fine.”

“That's enough”, Lieutenant Scott interrupted. “Both of you.”

Elsa let out a little growl – that probably didn't sound as intimidating as she had hoped – and she took a few steps back. If only she knew where her aggressiveness came from. Then again people like that annoyed her to no end and it seemed if she didn't do anything against their behavior then no one aboard _Destiny_ would.

“Okay everyone, let's pack up and get back to _Destiny_ , so that we can report what we found.”

Not long after Scott's announcement everyone was seated again and the shuttle was slowly rising a few hundred meters above the tress.

“I'll do a slow ascend so that we might see something else of interest”, Scott said from his place in the pilot's seat.

Elsa alternated from looking at the sensor display in front of her and out of the forward windows. If they'd find animals it would count as interesting on this planet, but then again the planet itself would loose some of its strangeness.

_Can't please everyone, can you?_

They reached the mountain range that Elsa had looked at and once they had passed the first row of mountains they indeed found something of interest. At least Greer did at first, him of all people!

“We are not the first”, he said and from his seat at the weapons console he had fixed his eyes on something to the starboard side of the shuttle.

Elsa followed his eyes and had to fight hard to avoid a gasp. Standing in a tree-covered basin of the massif was an obelisk; it was black or maybe obsidian and from the patterns she could see it was either covered in decorations, drawings or even writings.

She immediately switched on the recordings of the shuttle's sensors and glanced at her display.

“It's around 300 meters high and seems to consist nearly completely of Naquadah.”

She hadn't thought that she'd mention that material here on the planet as normally it needed to be mined deep in planets or asteroids. While _Destiny_ herself consisted of various alloys of that material – which explained partly why she was still flying – the Stargates that the seed ships produced seemed not to use much of the material, unlike the Stargates back home in the Milky Way or Pegasus which consisted nearly only of the superconductive material. Maybe the Ancients had known back then that Naquadah wouldn't necessarily be around that much and had decided to use a Stargate design that didn't need much. And now here they were, gliding around a whole obelisk made of that stuff.

“Life signs?”, Scott asked.

Elsa shook her head before she remembered that Scott couldn't see her from his position without turning around. “Nope, nothing. However there's a faint energy signature, though I honestly would have expected more of an object made of Naquadah of that size.”

“Tell me when you've got enough data. We won't land there.”

“In that case you might as well fly on. Got everything recorded that I could.”

* * *

 

An hour later the shuttle and its crew were back on _Destiny_ again and while most people aboard tried to make sense of the samples that had been brought back their leaders decided to discuss the planet as a whole in the control room. Rush, Eli and Elsa were seated at their consoles while Colonel Young and Lieutenant Scott were standing in the space between Eli and Elsa and Camile in the proximity of Rush, a reminder of how things had been the previous day.

“While you were on the surface we've done a few scans of our own”, Rush told. “The star is a yellow G-type star like our sun and around two hundred million years old.”

“Basically just out of its baby shoes”, Eli threw in and earned a short glare from Rush that he ignored.

“That makes it too young to have a planet like the one we found”, Elsa said. “Add to that the missing fauna and that obelisk and I have the suspicion that this whole solar system was made by someone.”

“The Genesis device?”, Eli commented yet again.

“What?”, Camile asked in confusion.

“You know, _'life from lifelessness'_? Star Trek II? The Wrath of Khan?”

Elsa chuckled. “I don't think that it's been exactly a Genesis device. The whole star system wasn't here when the seed ships passed.”

“How far along are they?”, Young asked.

“Not enough”, Rush said.

Camile walked a bit more towards the center. “So, what now?”

“Well, we could study all the data we collected and maybe return when we are in range again after a month”, Rush explained.

“What- what about a trip down there?”, Scott threw in. Everyone turned to him.

“Explain”, Young ordered.

“You- you know, we usually don't have much time on the planets we visit. Here we have a whole month. We could collect water, fruits and seeds, fill up our stocks a bit and more importantly have some kind of vacation.”

“But we can only shuttle around fifteen people there”, Elsa provided.

Scott raised his hands in a placating gesture. “I know that it's not much. But it's at least something. We can study both the planet and the obelisk and relax a bit.”

“And what if the aliens that build this system return?”, Young remarked.

“Well, wouldn't aliens that constructed a system like this be able to help us?”

Elsa shook her head. “I don't know, Scott. Building a star system and sending people billions of light-years are two different kinds of things. But I see your point. I agree, though I won't be part of _that_ expedition.”

“To answer your question, Colonel Young”, Rush began, “if the aliens would show up we'd probably be helpless no matter whether we are on the planet or here on the ship.”

“I see.” Young looked at the people in the room for a while, then he turned to Camile. “What do you say?”

Well, at least he did already try to bring the civilian side back into the discussion through Camile. That wouldn't change that Elsa would have a talk with the three leaders however.

“I agree with Lieutenant Scott and Elsa”, Camile answered. “We should use the opportunity both to study the planet and to have at least some of our people relax down there.”

“Alright, then let's prepare a team.” Colonel Young turned to Scott. “Since this was your idea you'll lead again and TJ will go with you as well.”

It hadn't taken long to prepare everything. After all their possessions weren't _that_ much to begin with. Food and water would be taken from the planet as samples of both had been tested as alright or in case of the water even as better than alright. One of the transport boxes they had brought with them from Icarus base had been filled with equipment like shovels and tarpaulins to build a camp while a couple more boxes would be brought along to be filled at the end with food to increase the stocks on _Destiny_.

TJ had given instructions to one of the Airmen who had already helped her out in the past few months, though in an emergency the crew staying on the ship would be able to call for help using the stones while the people on the planet would be cut off after around a day or so due to _Destiny_ leaving the shuttle's radio range.

Rush had of course decided to stay back on _Destiny_ and so had Eli, Elsa, Brody and Park. The lead of the scientists had been given to Dr. Inman who had already been on the planet. The woman had already tried in the past to improve the taste of their water with various chemical additives and as rumor had it she even managed to distill a very crude moonshine. Though as far as Elsa was concerned the later had only been just that: a rumor.

* * *

 

Around seven hours after their discussion in the control room a good part of the crew had gathered in the observation deck to see off the shuttle. The situation reminded Elsa a bit of a similar event all those weeks ago when they had their first flight into a star. But the mood back then and now were totally different. The people around Elsa were jealous of those in the shuttle not because they'd die, but because they wouldn't get a chance to relax planetside.

Slowly the shuttle that had been docked a few decks below and in front of the observation deck rose, then rotated a bit to the right, before it started its main engines and left the path that would take _Destiny_ around the star.

Soon the shuttle was out of sight and the gathered people started to get back to whatever task had been given to them. Only a small group of people stayed in the room, but that was because their task coincided with Elsa's.

Rush had the glorious idea – and she didn't even mean that ironically – to shut off the engines which they wouldn't need to drift around the star anyway and use the power to boost the shields. This way they'd be able to explore areas of the ship that otherwise would be exposed to vacuum.

Unlike the last expedition of the ship however which had led to the discovery of the neural interface chair Elsa had decided to be a part of the exploration team from the beginning. Who knew what they'd find after all? Colonel Young then had assigned her Vanessa James and a few other soldiers while she herself had picked a few of the technicians. And with the shuttle now gone they'd finally get the chance to take a better look at the ship.

Thus after a quick check that everyone was ready she lead the group down a few decks and to a bulkhead door that had been marked with an 'X' to denote that there was no atmosphere on the other side.

Elsa reached for her PADD. “Eli, Rush, how's the air on the other side of this door?”

Thankfully she didn't need to bother telling them the designation number of the door – which was quite a mouthful – as the two left in the control room could see her on the life sign map that she had created. Additionally she had discovered another overlay that showed the location of PADD communications (including the PADDs unique designation) and combining the two overlays basically proved invaluable. Though of course it also opened the opportunity for misuse. She suppressed a shudder and hoped that they'd never use this kind of surveillance system against the innocent on this ship.

“ _The sensors show that the environmental conditions are all green”_ , Rush answered.

“ _Of course”_ , Eli supplied before she could answer, _“considering that we're talking about Ancients here it's yellow and not green, but at least it's a different color from the previous, evil dark red.”_

Elsa couldn't help but grin at Eli's antics and she could also imagine Rush shaking his head.

“Then I'll now open the door”, she said, both to the group behind her as well as the two men listening in on her with the PADD.

She reached for the massive button beside the door, pressed it and was immediately presented with the noise of the door's locking mechanism spinning. The door wings then slid apart and revealed a corridor just like any other on the ship.

“Well, no surprises here”, she commented and together with Vanessa she took the lead.

For around the next hour and half there had been indeed no surprises. They had found more crew quarters, storage rooms both filled and empty as well as the one or other lab. Then however they were standing on a gallery, looking down into a room filled with boxes: they had found another cargo hold.

“Let's see if we can find a way down and then find a terminal with the hold's manifest”, she said to the others.

“Here!”, one of the technicians yelled from where he was standing on the other end of the gallery.

Elsa, Vanessa and the others walked up to him and saw him pointing his flash light – they had yet to find the light switch – to a ladder reaching down into the room.

“Well, hopefully we'll find another exit. I wouldn't want to carry the contents up the ladder”, Vanessa supplied in a dry manner.

“True”, Elsa said with a giggle.

At least the search for a terminal had been a short one. They had found it as soon as they had climbed down next to the base of the ladder. A quick check revealed that this cargo hold wasn't automated like the other one Elsa had found was instead there was an inventory which mapped each item that was registered in the hold to a box' index. An index number that could also be found on the boxes themselves what a quick check on a nearby box confirmed.

“Anything useful?”, Vanessa asked while Elsa was scrolling through the inventory and the others were scattered around the hold and looking into any random box.

“Not ye-”, Elsa was about to reply, but then she noticed something that piqued her interest. “Correction. I found something. Please check for box 35-54-134.”

She grabbed her flashlight – seriously, where was the light switch? - and started searching herself.

“What are we looking for?”, one of the technicians asked three rows away from her.

Elsa's face formed a wide grin while she looked at everyone in the room. “Another repair robot.”

She saw a few eyes widen in the light of her flashlight before they all continued to search for the robot in earnest. The robot she had found shortly after their arrival had been very helpful so far, slowly but surely repairing the hull breaches they had next to the area of the ship they all lived in.

Due to their size of the group and everyone of them knowing at least enough Ancient to know the numbers – considering the countdown clocks they were important for their survival – and the fact that here the boxes weren't stacked above each other they soon found the repair robot.

“Now we only need to find another exit”, Elsa said with joy in her voice. She turned around on the spot she was standing on, moving the light cone of her flashlight to each of the four walls. “Aha! Found you!”

With a few strides she reached the door which was on the opposite side of the terminal and the ladder and with delight she also found the light switch next to the door. Pressing it the sound of the lights powering up for the first time in millions of years filled the room and soon light itself followed suit.

She picked up her PADD again. “Eli, anything interesting on _this_ floor?” They _did_ have the schematics after all and while the room with the neural interface chair had been marked rather nondescriptly that wasn't the case for each and every room.

“ _Hold on”_ , came the immediate reply. _“No, wait, yes. At least I think. Does 'facturia' mean what I think it does?”_

The grin that Elsa still sported after having found the door _and_ the light switch became rather feral as disturbing as it may look.

“Oh yes, Eli. It definitely does.” She pressed the door control and the door wings obeyed immediately. “Which way?”

“ _To the right and then straight on. There should be another door.”_

“Thanks.” Before she moved out she turned back towards her team however. “Half of you with me, the other half prepares the repair robot for being moved to our living areas. And check the terminal whether you find anything that might be useful for us right now.”

Without waiting for said half of her team to form and enough excitement in her body that it showed she left the cargo hold and went towards the next room that Eli had indicated.

The door was rather nondescript, just like the other doors in the ship. As she pressed the door control panel she noticed the members of her team gathering behind her, Vanessa coming up next to her.

The door wings slid apart, revealing a dark hall. A quick look to the sides of the door however also revealed the light switch which Elsa used as well. The lights in the hall became alive just like they had in the cargo hold.

Elsa gasped as she saw the machinery before her. As much as _Destiny_ could already be considered a steampunk fan's dream the machinery that filled the room, no, hall was more accurate, would be a steampunk fan's _wet_ dream. Pipes went everywhere around and inside the machinery, up and down, left and right, in and out. What surprised her the most however was – at least if she saw it correctly – the collection of control crystals. So far _Destiny_ had been surprisingly devoid of the crystals _Atlantis_ and other Ancient technology were full of. She already suspected that this had to do with the ship being much older than any other Ancient technology they had found up to now with the only exception being the Ark of Truth that had been built by them before they fled from their home galaxy.

She stepped closer towards what appeared to be the control terminal which was located near one of the edges of the machinery. Just next to a small window that allowed her to look into it. To her surprise the inside of the machine was hollow, smooth and huge. She estimated that it was around ten meters wide in all three dimensions.

After powering on the terminal she felt herself giddy like Anna on caffeine - _never_ give Anna caffeine! – as she noticed what the purpose of this device seemed to be.

“What is it?”, came a curious voice from her side.

Elsa turned towards Vanessa and had to restrain herself from bouncing up and down. She pointed towards the terminal with both hands not unlike her sister would have done. “It's a matter manipulator!”

The other woman looked at her confused. “Matter _manipulator_? You sure you don't mean synthesizer?”

Elsa shook her head. “No, a synthesizer is if you can take basically any atom and generate another atom of it. That's what the Asgard had perfected and gifted us with before their collective suicide. This baby here needs the correct raw material and can merely rearrange the atoms and molecules, but cannot change them to different ones. Consider it a more primitive variant of the synthesizer. And maybe this is _the_ prototype of the Ancients.”

One of the technicians behind Vanessa chose the moment to comment as well. “But we haven't seen anything like this in _Atlantis_. Sure the Ancients would have improved the technology till then.”

She looked at the man and he felt vaguely familiar. “You've been on _Atlantis_ as well?”

He nodded. “For the last two years.”

“Well, then you should know as much as I do that we haven't yet explored the city completely. There are still _large_ areas that are completely unknown to us. So something like this could be hidden there and I wouldn't even be surprised if we'd find a ZPM factory in her bowels.”

The eyes of her companions widened. ZPMs, or Zero Point Modules were considered one of _the_ ultimate power sources they knew, powered by energy taken from an artificial miniature universe, and three of these small crystals were needed to fully power the Ancient city ship – though much could already be achieved with merely one. They had two significant disadvantages however: First one could not recharge them, at least humanity didn't know a way. True, they lasted an insanely long time, especially if the power consumption was moderate – the three ZPMs had kept _Atlantis_ shield going for 10,000 years under water – but once they were depleted they were just a fancy paper weight. That led to the second disadvantage: they were scarce. Only the Ancients had known how to build them, but the humans from Earth had yet to find a factory for them and so they needed to rely on whatever ZPM they found lying around. The only known source of ZPMs in the past years had been the planet Asura where an artificial race created by the Ancients had lived in a mimicry of the Ancient life, complete with wide Ancient city, ships and city ship... and a motherload of ZPMs.

A pity that they had to destroy the planet. But Elsa's suspicion that _Atlantis_ herself somewhere had a factory would stay strong until they had _proven_ the opposite. It just didn't make sense to create such a power source outside of the own city. Maybe only if the process of creating one was dangerous, but even then the Ancients were known for not really caring too much about that.

Elsa looked back at the terminal. What bothered her were some red texts that flashed around on the display. She hit a button that brought her to the maintenance information and she let out a sigh.

“It's not useable.”

“What?”, several of the gathered people – both soldiers and technicians – exclaimed.

Elsa turned her attention back at them and gestured with one hand towards the manipulator. “This machine unlike the others here on _Destiny_ is running with control crystals.” At least her suspicion regarding that had been correct. All other technology so far that they had found on the ship didn't use control crystals unlike any later technology of the Ancients. _Atlantis_ basically only consisted of control crystals. Considering the advantages they provided in terms of efficiency and performance that was no wonder and they were endurable to last millennia. Though it seemed they didn't last millions of years...

“It seems the crystals here have deteriorated, loosing their crystal matrix in the process.”

“Do we have the schematics of the required matrices?”, another technician, this time a woman asked.

Elsa quickly took a look at the terminal again, entering a few commands. After a few moments she looked back at the other woman.

“It seems so, why?”

“Well, if we find raw crystals somewhere we should be able to program them.” The woman shrugged. “It would take some time, but it would be doable.”

Elsa had to admit that she hadn't yet worked with raw control crystals. She only ever got the finished ones or worked with technology that didn't need them anyway. But if what the woman said was true...

“But wouldn't raw crystals deteriorate as well in all that time?”, she asked.

The woman shook her head. “Natural crystals can grow for thousands if not million of years and if they're cut off they'll stay that way as long as they're not exposed to the elements. Programming them changes their structure however and thus their crystal matrix will collapse with time.”

Elsa nodded. She knew that crystals could be old, considering some geodes that had been found, but she hadn't exactly expected that. Then again it made sense.

“Okay, then we put raw control crystals on our list of things to find”, she said and turned back to the manipulator. “This is too good a resource for us to ignore.”

“Apropos resource”, Vanessa interjected and Elsa turned towards her. “Didn't you say that it needs the raw materials to work?”

Elsa blinked a few times. She had an eidetic memory, so she hadn't forgotten that, but she did seem to have suppressed that thought.

“Yeah...”, she admitted. “Well, uhm, either we find some in the cargo holds or once we've taken control of the ship we can only hope that we can take her mining some asteroids or something.”

* * *

 

One and a half weeks had passed since they had found the matter manipulator and they had yet to find any raw control crystals in the stores – though they still hadn't been in every cargo hold. Brody and Lisa had managed to get the second shuttle airtight again and currently tried to work out its control systems. Thanks to the first repair robot the arboretum was finally repaired and the first plants that had grown large enough could be moved from the hydroponic lab to there.

All this however wasn't at the front of Elsa's mind. At least not while she was standing in the stone room, waiting for Camile Wray who would help her with Elsa's switch. She hadn't expected to ever take part in this, but Camile had brought up convincing arguments after the meeting two days ago between Camile, Rush, Young and her to finally establish a formal leadership.

It had been a very trying meeting, but in the end it was decided on a triumvirate consisting of Young, Rush and Camile, each representing the military, the scientists and the other civilians aboard respectively. They would decide matters together and with votes as long as time wasn't of essence. In the latter case the most experienced leader – for example Young in case of an attack – would take the full lead until the crisis was solved and afterwards the leader's actions would be discussed and maybe sanctions would be decided upon by the remaining two. They knew it wasn't perfect, but it was better than what they had before and they all had decided upon it together, so there was that. Elsa herself had been made viceroy of Rush.

When the meeting had been over Camile had thanked Elsa for her role as mediator, but had also remarked that Elsa should really go for a vacation on Earth. Elsa had repeated her reasons for not going and after prompting for more information about Elsa's powers and hearing that emotions – especially love – were needed to control them Camile had refuted her reasons one by one, starting with the fact that _Destiny_ would be adrift for nearly three more weeks and thus Elsa wouldn't have to worry about interruptions of the stones and that Camile had a suitable person to swap with in mind.

In the end Camile had convinced Elsa that a little vacation back home was necessary and useful and the woman had gone back to Earth to set things in motion.

And that brought Elsa's thoughts to the stone communication room again. She had done a little bit of talking with Sergeant Riley who had finally been released of the infirmary a few days ago. It had taken long enough for him to heal and Elsa had hoped they'd manage to adjust the medical bed to the human physiology soon enough to avoid such problems in the future.

The door to the room opened and with a look over her shoulder Elsa saw that Camile entered the room – finally! Elsa had been quite nervous the last two days and sleep hadn't come easy to her either.

“Okay, Elsa, everything should be set up on the other side by now. I'll swap first with Sharon and you'll explain all you need to her, then you'll swap with her.”

Elsa nodded. The woman she'd swap with was Sharon Walker who was no one else than Camile Wray's girlfriend. The idea was that the love between the two woman would prevent Elsa's powers from provoking any accident. Just in case however they had informed most people on the ship and they'd remove the stone if anything happened, dropping Elsa back in her own body. The hope was that she'd be able to get control back fast enough to prevent anything bad from happening.

In addition Elsa had talked with Anna who'd keep an eye out as well – it had turned out that it would be complicated for her younger sister to go back to Earth. Apparently existing on a higher plane didn't necessarily mean immediate travel. Then again the war with the Ori a few years back who were basically the Ancient's brethren had shown this already. Being ascended beings as well they couldn't enter the Milky Way until their corporal, human army had established a large enough stronghold with enough willing followers in that galaxy. Thankfully that never happened and the Ori were defeated.

Aside from all that Elsa had decided to give Sharon and Camile permission to use her body as they saw fit as long as Elsa wouldn't find a frozen over _Destiny_ once she came back. She knew the two women would probably use the opportunity to sleep with each other, but it isn't as if Elsa had never done that either. However due to her immortality Elsa didn't have it in her heart to enter a prolonged relationship. Seeing her spouse age and die like she had seen her sister and her brother-in-law was something she didn't want to subject herself to.

She noticed that Camile had grabbed a stone and placed it on the terminal – hopefully there were no aliens nearby – and immediately she noticed she shift in the woman's posture. Camile usually held herself with a confidence like she owned the place. Considering that she was in a leading position that wasn't that far from the truth however.

The woman that was now in front of Elsa didn't emit this feeling of authority. Oh, she still looked confident and that crossing her would probably be a mistake one would only do once, but she looked way more approachable then Camile Wray.

Elsa watched Sharon – at least she hoped it indeed was Sharon – exploring her new body, slowly retracting her hand from the stone terminal, turning her hand over, looking at it from all sides.

“Wow. This feels... different.”

In the hope not to startle the other woman too much Elsa cleared her throat. Camile's face turned to her, the brown eyes much warmer than usual.

“Welcome aboard _Destiny_ ”, Elsa said while reaching out with her hand. “I'm Elsa.”

Recognition flashed in the eyes across her and Sharon looked Elsa over. She couldn't take offense at that however since Sharon would spend the next few days in her body and apparently Sharon liked what she saw as soon she smiled widely and grabbed the hand to shake it.

“A pleasure. I'm Sharon.” She let go of Elsa's hand. “Your hand feels cold.” Suddenly her eyes widened and she brought her hands up in a defensive gesture. “No offense.”

Elsa shook her head with a smile. “None taken. Though it has to do with the reason why I plan to swap with you.” Elsa held up her hand, conjuring a little cloud of snow above it.

“This... is... amazing...”, Sharon said, her eyes trained on the swirling snowflakes.

“And just as dangerous.” With a mere thought the cloud of snow disappeared. “I have this power since my birth and I struggled a long time to get it under control. It's like a swirling storm inside that tries to find release at every opportunity one presents. I don't want to put you under any pressure, Sharon, but you'll only have seconds to keep this storm contained.”

Sharon gulped. “And how do you suggest I do this?”

“My powers are tied to my emotions. Fear and anger are good candidates for an outburst, I've learned however that love helps just as well to control it. In fact it is _the_ emotion I rely on for control together with other happy emotions.”

Elsa saw understanding in Sharon's eyes. “So that is why Camile had suggested me. Cause her and I love each other and your hope is that is enough.”

Elsa inclined her head. “Indeed that is the case. However if you should notice your control to slip, don't hesitate to notify _anyone_ and they'll disrupt the stone connection. I hope that this way we can avoid any potential problem.”

Sharon looked to be in thought for a moment and Elsa could understand that. As she had said she didn't _want_ to put the other woman under any pressure, but her powers wouldn't care about that. They would put her whole inside under a pressure to burst out by the first possible mistake. Oh, she had been in the room Anna had shown her to release any bottled up urges just before she came to the stone room, but she knew that her powers didn't necessarily work that way.

“Okay, I'll do it. How do we proceed from here?”, Sharon finally said and Elsa felt herself relieved.

While she had said before that she wouldn't need any visit to Earth, she had to admit that she also looked forward to it now. She didn't yet know what exactly she was going to do, but she'd see and now she would indeed get the chance to do so.

“We'll interrupt your current connection, so that you and Camile will swap back again and then I'll place a stone and we two will swap. We'll wait for a moment to see whether you have any immediate problems and then we'll just go our ways for some days”, Elsa explained.

“Sounds easy enough.” Sharon turned towards Sergeant Riley who had listened to the two women without a word. “I'm ready.”

Riley nodded, grabbed a cloth and went towards the lone stone on the terminal. “See you soon”, he said as he picked up the stone.

Again Elsa noticed the change in posture on the other woman right away.

“You've explained everything?”, Camile asked right away, already used to the swapping by now, though Elsa wondered how the woman felt to _be_ her lover for a while.

Elsa nodded. “I've explained what she can expect and what she should do if things go south.” She grabbed one of the other stones from the storage box while Riley was still cleaning Camile's signature from the stone, literally cleaning it as that was how simple the stones worked.

“Here goes nothing”, Elsa said, followed by a deep breath and placed the stone on the terminal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I personally believe that this was a nice point for the chapter break. I hope you're all looking forward to what Elsa will be doing back on good ol' Earth as I looked forward to writing it. :)
> 
> The next part will be up in a few minutes.


	16. Confidence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Important note: another chapter ("Conundrum") had been posted right before this, so don't forget to read that as well. ;)
> 
> Last chapter's title was based on the mystery that is that strange solar system and this chapter's title is based on the English Wikipedia article about the word "faith" describing it (among other things) as "confidence or trust in a person or thing".
> 
> Edit: Thanks to Piero217 I noticed that I used the name "Sinclair" in "Life" and "Space" when I originally had meant "Spencer". That's corrected now... *sigh*
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

The change in the scenery had been immediate, so immediate that Elsa wondered how the Ancients had managed to trick the brain into not feeling sick due to the sudden change of sensory information. What if one changed from being in zero gravity to gravity? What if the temperature difference was very far?

Speaking of which. While Elsa had no problem seeing her changed environment – her view was dominated by a few computer monitors in front of a concrete wall – it was something else that had her know that something had changed: cold. She felt cold.

Of course Elsa could feel different temperatures without problems, she knew the difference between a scoop of ice and a cup of hot chocolate. However just like her body was able to ignore the feeling of clothes against its skin it was also used to ignore the feeling of coldness. But this body did not know this, it didn't have the ice powers that let it completely tune out the cold. And thus despite it being not that cold in the room she felt it just the more as it was a completely unusual feeling for her.

Finally she looked at the monitors in front of her. One of them was of particular interest, showing a woman with dark blonde, nearly brunette hair reaching her shoulders standing in front of a desk looking straight into the camera.

Elsa lifted a hand and noticed the woman do the same. It was strange. On a conscious level she knew that the woman on that monitor was Sharon, the woman who's body she now inhabited, but unconsciously her sense of self was completely off. Her brain didn't associate itself with that body having lived many decades with a completely different face. It was an amazing feeling.

“Ms. Agdarsdatter?”

Whirling around Elsa thought for a moment about the body's balance feeling off compared to her own; thankfully she managed to neither fall nor trip despite that. Maybe the deep subconscious of the body stayed behind and is now working together with her foreign consciousness?

She noticed a soldier wearing a camo colored battle dress uniform in the door frame.

“Yes?”

To her surprise the soldier straightened a bit more after her answer, looking less at ease and more at attention. She raised an eyebrow at that, but the soldier ignored her.

“I'm here to escort you to General O'Neill, ma'am”, the young man said.

Elsa hesitated. She wanted to stay a bit longer, just in case Sharon decided that she couldn't deal with Elsa's body. Then however Elsa mentally smacked her forehead. She couldn't do anything anyway and if the other side cancelled the connection it wouldn't matter where Elsa was, so she could simply go along anyway.

“Lead the way.” She waved towards the door in which the soldier was standing.

He turned around with a brisk nod and walked away in a comfortable pace while Elsa followed along wondering again how normal and yet abnormal an activity like walking in a foreign body felt.

A few minutes and turns later she stood in front of an office door and the soldier announced her.

“Thank you, Sergeant Rayes. You may leave”, the warm voice of General O'Neill said from inside. The soldier nodded again and left.

A few moments later Elsa entered the office and finally laid her eyes on the Chief of Homeworld Security. She had talked with him a few times in the past already – of course he fully knew about her – and noticed that in the last few months since the start of the operations of Icarus base his hair that was not so long ago described as salt-and-pepper was now more salt than pepper. Not to mention that the General filled out his uniform a bit more. He still looked fit, but it was definitely noticeable that he spent most of his time in his office or at least here in the bowels of the Pentagon. He had admitted to her once or twice that this didn't suit him at all. He preferred to be in the middle of the action, leading a team through the Stargate to discover strange new worlds just as he had done in the first seven years of the Stargate program. But alas times changed.

“Ah, Elsa, so good to finally see you here as well”, the man said with a smile. At least that hadn't changed. While he was a no nonsense man when his life or the life of his subordinates depended on it he was one of the most easy going people she knew, more often than not playing dumb, playing down his own intelligence that she knew he had – thanks to Samantha Carter.

“Well, General, I'm sure you know my reasons”, Elsa replied and placed herself between the door and his desk.

“Yeah, yeah, I do”, he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Please, have a seat. And close the door, please.”

“What, first taking a seat and then closing the door?”, she asked with a smirk. She knew that O'Neill preferred easygoing talk like that and not serious, no nonsense one, at least outside of life threatening situations.

O'Neill blinked at her for a few moments and then he smiled. “I know why I like you. You're my favorite Ancient, you know?”

Elsa closed the door and then took a seat in front of O'Neill's desk.

“Not that hard with the missing competition”, she responded with a shrug and O'Neill laughed out aloud.

He wiped a few imaginative tears – or were they? – from his face. “Ah, I needed that. Things here can get much too serious especially with the IOA looking over our shoulders.”

Elsa knew that the IOA was a sore point in the military, not only the US one, but also among their allies – except the Chinese maybe. Both always tried to get the Stargate out of the hands of the US Air Force and when that didn't work at least the IOA tried to insert themselves into key positions. They had thought they had replaced the leader of _Atlantis_ with someone who followed them blindly only to find out that Richard Woolsey had sooner than not been reformed by the Pegasus galaxy to be loyal first to the city and her inhabitants and then to that club of jealous people. Now with _Destiny_ they tried again. Camile hadn't admitted anything, but Elsa highly suspected that the idea to mutiny came from one of the woman's superiors in the IOA. Regarding that Elsa was glad that her own paycheck came from the US Research department and that she wasn't directly affiliated with the US Air Force or the IOA. Though personally she tended to lean more towards the former than the latter.

“I can imagine”, she replied. “Now, General, how may I help you?”

“Help me?”, O'Neill replied in mock hurt. “No, no, no, I'm going to help _you_.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow.

“Not bad, but Teal'c's is better”, he commented and Elsa snorted just as she managed to bring a hand up to her face.

She had only met the former First Prime of Apophis a few times, but from those meetings she knew that he transported a great deal of his opinions through his two eyebrows and different intonations of the word 'indeed'. Not that he needed to do that – he was perfectly capable of the display of other emotions and the use of complex sentences – it was just the way Teal'c worked, a personal quirk so to say.

“Anyway”, the General continued. “I thought that you probably want to visit your home, Alendel...”

“Arendal”, she corrected automatically.

“What I said. The _George Hammond_ is in orbit and will be for a while, so I've arranged for her to be on beam duty for you.”

Elsa's eyes went wide. “You... you arranged a ship to beam me there?”

The man shrugged. “Least I could do for our one and only Ancient.”

“Part Ancient”, she corrected again.

“Ancient enough for me.” He paused for a moment. “You'll probably want to spend a few hours with Sam on the _Hammond_.”

“Sam's aboard?”, Elsa asked a smile appearing on her face. Samantha Carter had become a good friend of hers during the time the woman had been the leader of _Atlantis_.

O'Neill nodded. “She is.” He reached somewhere inside his desk and brought up a sleek looking radio with a connected earpiece. “And with this you can stay in contact with the _Hammond_.”

She picked up the radio and decided to put it on when she had a bit more privacy as she would need to thread the cables of the earpiece between her skin and her clothes.

“Thank you, General. Anything else?”

The General seemed to think about it for a moment before he answered again. “Nope.” He stressed the 'p' with a loud plop. “Have fun. And don't do anything I wouldn't do.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow and immediately O'Neill's hands went up in a defensive manner.

“I know, I know. Not the best hint that might come from _me_. Just try not to get into trouble.”

She nodded and stood from her seat and with an encouraging nod from the General she put the earpiece in her ear and keyed the radio.

“Elsa to _George Hammond_.”

“ _Here_ Hammond _”_ , came the answer of an unknown male voice.

“I've heard that you've been put on duty to beam me around?” Nothing like a bit of humor to melt the ice.

“ _Acknowledged. You ready for beam up?”_ Though apparently the person on the other end didn't appreciate that.

“Yes, I'm ready.” She waved at O'Neill. “Goodbye, General O'Neill.”

Before he could answer she could hear the humming noise of the transporter and as the white light engulfed her she could faintly see the General waving back before her view was replaced by the astonishing view of Earth.

* * *

 

Not caring for her environment – she was in safety after all – she walked towards the window in front of her and took in the blue marble that was her and humanity's home, the first world. She also enjoyed the view of the familiar stellar constellations. Of course during her time on _Atlantis_ she hadn't seen them for longer periods, but she had missed them nevertheless despite being on _Destiny_ merely for around a quarter of a year.

“Why am I not surprised that you're first looking out into space before you look at those close to you?”, a female voice jested behind her.

Elsa swirled around, nearly loosing her balance and her face became red. It took her only mere moments to take in the woman that was now standing in front of her.

“Sam!”, Elsa exclaimed and moved forward to hug her friend, a hug that gratefully was returned. “You know that I don't want to ignore those close to me”, she said once they broke the hug.

Sam smiled. “I know. Though even _you_ can't resist _that_ view.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “You let me beam here on purpose?”

The woman shook her head, her short, blonde locks swaying a bit. “We beam everyone here who doesn't need to be anywhere else.”

Elsa would have liked to raise her eyebrow again, but it was still raised, so it was a moot point. Instead she dropped it as well as the topic. “So, how are you, Sam? I heard you and the _Hammond_ had been involved in the fight above Icarus base?”

Sam nodded. “Three Ha'taks had dropped out of hyperspace and they started to land troops near the base. For some reason our weapons were less effective on them than on other Ha'taks.”

That was worrying. With the demise of the Asgard the humans of Earth had inherited all their technology and knowledge among them the feared Asgard Beam Weapons, a concentrated beam of contained plasma that managed to overload shields and destroy hulls without breaking into much of a sweat. The weapons had helped them in the Pegasus galaxy on more than one occasion. To learn that there was someone out there that could withstand the weapons...

“Maybe we have a spy somewhere...”, Elsa surmised.

“Possibly, though they are covering their tracks well”, Sam answered with a sigh. “What about you? Stranded billions of light-years away on an Ancient ship far older than nearly everything else.”

Elsa noticed the dreamy look on Sam's eyes. Despite being a soldier and now a commanding officer of a spaceship she was first and foremost a scientist. And Elsa knew that Sam missed the time when she could lock herself in a lab and learn everything about the newest gadget that had been found somewhere off-world.

“You would love it there, Sam. The ship is truly fascinating and aside from the language so surprisingly different and...”, she had to find the right word, but in the end she came up short, “... simple.”

“Simple?” Now it was Sam who raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. If we wouldn't have access to the Asgard and Ancient databases and technology _Destiny_ would be the closest thing that we would be able to build ourselves. Maybe not as durable and as sleek, but definitely closer to us than say _Atlantis_ or the current Stargates.”

Sam shook her head with a smile. “I hadn't thought that I'd ever hear the words 'Ancients' and 'simple' in one sentence. Anyway. What is your plan now?”

“Well, I'd like to visit Arendelle, uhm, I mean Arendal again. I haven't seen my family's graves for a while.” Of course she knew the difference between graves and epitaphs, but at least for Kristoff, Sven, her niece Ingunn and their descendants there were bodies below the stones. “Then a visit to my ice palace, maybe ending with a visit to _Atlantis_. Is she still in San Francisco bay?”

“Uhm, no”, Sam answered, “we moved her to the moon. Much easier to hide her without a quarantine zone.”

Elsa's eyes went wide. “You landed her on a hard surface?!”

Sam shrugged. “Sheppard was confident enough and he did manage it with the touch of a feather. Though the missing atmosphere might have helped.”

Elsa remembered the landing they had after the first time they had moved the Ancient city to another planet. She had been in the control room back then and despite Rodney McKay, their chief scientist and more often than not pain in the ass, shouting to Colonel Sheppard to touch the ocean's surface like a feather in everyone's opinion it had been anything but. Landing the massive city on a solid surface like the moon however...

“Well, if you're going to visit Arendal, you'll need to dress accordingly. It's winter after all”, Sam said with a wink, turning around to walk out of the room while gesturing for Elsa to follow her.

Right. Not only did Elsa have to hold up appearances, but there was also the point that for this body the cold _did_ bother her. She hadn't noticed it during her talk with Sam, but now that she thought about it the _Hammond_ felt a bit colder than the offices of Homeworld Security. Only one or maybe two degrees perhaps, but she felt it.

The two women had spent the walk through the ship talking about their daily lives they had and soon Elsa found herself standing in front of a pulsing white oval that was around as large as herself.

“An Asgard Core”, she said with awe. She had heard about the heritage the Asgard had gifted to them, used some of it herself, but she had yet to stand in front of one of the devices. She turned to Sam. “I thought we only had the one installed on the _Oddyssey_?”

“Well, we've managed to initiate its copy protocols. Currently Earth, the _Daedalus_ and the _Hammond_ have one, though we plan to have one in _Atlantis_ and the other ships by the end of the year.”

Elsa felt the smooth surface of the mighty device. “And it contains the whole knowledge of the Asgard?”

“Not only that”, Sam smiled. “Sif?”, she called into the air and next to Elsa and Sam a grey skinned alien reaching to Elsa's navel with large, black, oval shaped eyes appeared next to them.

“How may I help you, Colonel Carter?”, the alien said in a voice that was the only thing that betrayed the alien was a female with her body otherwise being absolutely nondescript.

“A hologram?”, Elsa blurted out and the alien turned towards her, blinking once with her large eyes.

“I am a holographic representation of the consciousness of the Asgard Sif who is stored in the Core”, she said without many gestures.

“So... your race isn't really dead?”

Again the alien blinked. “That is correct. We hoped that humanity will find a way to return us to bodies that aren't genetically degraded. But since we had no more time ourselves we had to take this drastic step.”

“Drastic indeed.” Elsa turned to Sam. “Any progress with that?”

Sam shook her head. “Not yet. Scientists are still sieving through the data the Asgard had collected on their genetic degradation.” Sam looked at the alien. “Thank you, Sif.”

“Any time, Colonel Carter.” The Asgard disappeared again.

“I hope we'll find a way to revive the Asgard race”, Elsa said still looking at the space the diminutive alien had been standing at. “Though I don't know what they hope us to accomplish after they failed for hundreds of years to do so.”

Sam's face showed a smile. “The Asgard were often enough surprised by our unusual approaches. So they thought that maybe we'll find such an approach for their problem as well.”

Elsa nodded. She had read a few of the reports especially of SG-1 which Sam had been a part of. The Asgard had come to Stargate Command in the hope to find help for their fight against the replicators, mechanical bugs that consisted of small, interconnectable pieces that could process other metal so that they could multiply. An experiment gone rogue basically. It had turned out that while they were immune to the Asgard's energy weapons they were vulnerable to humanity's projectile weapons, a concept the Asgard hadn't thought of. The help Colonel O'Neill had provided the Asgard Thor had been the foundation for the friendship between their two species and now they were able to reap the fruit of that.

“Anyway, that's not really why we're here”, Sam interrupted Elsa's train of thoughts. “We want to get you some suitable gear.” The woman moved over to a laptop that looked connected to the core. “We've scanned most of our standard gear with the Core, so we just need a scan of you and we'll be able to create you a perfectly fitting one.”

After a few commands entered by Sam a faint light appeared around Elsa and not much later she could see a three dimensional representation of herself on the screen. Sam entered a few more commands and soon Elsa's representation was wearing what looked like a very comfortable and warm winter jacket together with thick boots. Considering that it was already winter in Northern Europe that fell definitely in the category of suitable gear.

“Is it just me or aren't manually entered commands very user friendly?”, Elsa asked after having watched Sam adjust the colors a bit.

The other woman looked up with a sly smile. “It's still a prototype. The guys in software engineering already have a better variant going, but for now it's better than playing around with those control stones.” She pointed at the egg shaped stones resting on the control panel of the Core.

“Right”, Elsa replied, hoping that she'd get the chance to play around with the software some time in the future as well.

“So, what do you think?”, Sam said and stepped aside from the computer.

Elsa looked at the display again. The color of the jacket and the boots was grey, though it leaned towards her favorite ice blue color.

“You thought of me, did you?”, Elsa commented with a smile.

“Of course. When I have the ability to make something especially for you.”

Elsa laughed. “Don't let O'Neill hear that you treat me like your girlfriend.”

Sam waved that thought away. “I don't think he'll mind. He knows I'm straight.”

“Though it took _you_ a few glasses of red wine and a cool night on of the vacant balconies of _Atlantis_ to find out”, Elsa responded with a wink.

This time Sam blushed. “It _was_ a very nice experience, but it's not for me. Enough of that. You like it?” Sam pointed at the display and Elsa confirmed that. “Good.”

Sam pressed a button, a progress bar appeared and after a few seconds a light like that of the transporter beam appeared on a marked area in front of the Asgard Core and just like that a jacket and a pair of boots were lying there.

Elsa picked up the jacket and put it on.

“Wow, it fits like a glove”, she said while failing to look for a mirror. “That reminds me... we've just found a matter manipulator on _Destiny_.”

Sam's eyes went wide. “What?”

“You heard right. It's currently out of order, 'cause the control crystals have degenerated, but once we've managed to reprogram some we only need the corresponding raw materials and blueprints to create our own objects.”

“That... that's awesome. I hadn't thought that the Ancients had something like that.”

Elsa rolled her eyes. “I hope you remember that I'm of the opinion that there _has_ to be something like that on _Atlantis_. This just gives that idea a boost as we now know that the Ancients did indeed have access to such technology.”

Sam looked like a kicked puppy. “I'll only believe it once I've seen it on a map or with my own eyes.”

 _Atlantis_ was large. And despite them having had access to the city for nearly six years they still hadn't unlocked all her secrets, not to mention the enormous database.

“Maybe I should tell McKay to look out for 'facturia' on the map and database. At least that's what the room with the manipulator is called on _Destiny_ 's map.”

Sam nodded. “Though maybe you should tell Radek as well otherwise Rodney will keep that all to himself.”

The two scientists and engineers of _Atlantis_ had an interesting relationship. With Rodney McKay being the leader of the department and Radek Zelenka being his deputy the former always tried to be the first to uncover a new secret or even get all the credit if he hadn't done anything. Not to mention that his people skills at the beginning of the expedition had been worse than Elsa's at her coronation. Of course those skills had improved – they had to with him being part of the prime expedition team SGA-1 – but he was still a challenging man to deal with and Radek who simply wanted to do his job had to compete with McKay if he wanted to have _any_ recognition.

Meanwhile Elsa had also managed to put on the boots and she now held up Sharon's previous ones, thankfully they had been simple low shoes.

“You have an idea where I can put those?”, she asked Sam.

The other woman looked like she, too, had been ripped from her train of thought before she looked at the pair of shoes that dangled from Elsa's hand.

“I, uhm, have allotted you one of the guest quarters since I don't know how long you'll be here.”

Elsa smiled. “Thank you, Sam.”

* * *

 

Sam had shown Elsa her quarters and not much later the latter found herself standing on the surface of the planet again, to be more precise somewhere in the forest that surrounded the city of Arendal – at least that part that wasn't the fjord or the mountains. Thanks to it being the middle of the day they only had to worry about people nearby when she had been beamed down as the light of the transporter beam would fade after a few hundred meters and those people they had been able to detect with the _Hammond_ 's sensors.

Now Elsa was trudging through the snow and she was thankful for the boots and mesmerized how different the temperature felt for her even when she compared it to the insanely cold ice planet they had collected water on. She only hoped that she'd notice it if her loaned body told her that it was _too_ cold.

After half an hour she had reached the outer premises of the city, buildings that hadn't existed back in the 1840s. Arendelle or Arendal as it was now called hadn't expanded as much as other cities had due to the geography of the fjord, but nevertheless it had.

The houses she passed were modern buildings, each equipped with state of the art technology: central heating, fresh water access, plumbing, electricity. The older houses towards the center of the city as well as the castle had been converted piece by piece as time had granted them the technology. Some houses in the city center had even been torn down and rebuilt completely with the same facade, but modern interior, though of course these houses had bigger size constraints than those at the fringes.

But the city center itself wasn't why she was here. No, she merely needed to cross it to reach her destination at another end of the city: the graveyard. She remembered many of the graves that she could see. Some had already been old when she had been a child, still tended to by the offspring of those that had been buried there, some graves had fallen in disarray due to the lack of any or new tombstones stood in the place of tombstones that she remembered.

One area hadn't changed that much however, at least not anymore. Elsa walked up the little hill and stood in front of a few large boulders. The royal tombstones, memorials, epitaphs. The collection wasn't as large as it could have been, with her parents being the first royals to have their epitaphs here on the hill, as their ancestors had been buried in a crypt next to the graveyard's chapel. It was one of the only orders she had been able to give after their sudden demise. Elsa wanted them to be remembered separately, not to be lost in the anonymous mass of graves in the royal crypt and it had stuck, at least for as long as the Arendellian royal line still existed.

Between her parent's epitaphs stood two smaller ones, below them, in the earth just as many bodies as below the other two, namely none. On the one hand it was strange to stand in front of one's own grave, but yet she could never feel much for her own. Interestingly it was the same for Anna's though that might be cause her younger sister is still up and around, though not necessarily as a living, breathing being. The epitaphs of her parents however were different. They were both dead, at least by now for sure even if they somehow should have survived the storm that had claimed the ship.

She knew she couldn't show too much emotion. It was already unusual for someone to visit the royal graves, so it wouldn't do if she'd break down crying. Then again she had managed to do this since her own staged death though Anna's presence had helped at first. Nowadays all she allowed to appear were a few tears before she moved to another set of stones that stood next to their mother's epitaph and yet as close as possible to Anna's epitaph that stood also near Idunn's – Elsa had always been more a child of their father, so the two sister's had thought that it was better to place Elsa's epitaph next to Agdar's.

The two tombstones Elsa stood in front of now were a bit smaller than that of Elsa's direct family, though not any less impressive. They stood directly next to each other and unlike the epitaphs to her left they _did_ hold the remains of bodies beneath them, namely those of a reindeer and an ice harvester turned king.

After the events of the Eternal Winter it had taken a bit until the ice between her and Kristoff had been thawed, but when it did Kristoff became a brother for Elsa that she never had and that she hadn't known that she missed. She didn't have any secrets in front of Anna, but there were times when confiding in Kristoff was easier than in Elsa's sister as Kristoff and Elsa had a more similar mindset. They were both used to their solitude and in fact preferred it some times, but nevertheless they shared this bouncing bundle of joy, excitement and happiness that was Anna.

Also she had to admit that it was nice to cuddle up to him together with her sister. The two of them didn't have any romantic feelings for each other, but their relationship had nevertheless been strong.

And that showed in the way Arendelle's citizens had accepted not only Kristoff's proposal to Anna, but also as he had become sole ruler of the small kingdom after Anna's demise. Though he had only taken up the mantle of king until their daughter, Elsa's niece Ingunn had been old enough to become Queen.

With that and a bunch of more tears trailing down her face Elsa stepped to the next tombstone. Her niece had been the last human to know the full truth about Elsa before Elsa's slip up on _Atlantis_. Also she had been the last Queen of Arendelle, having abdicated way before her death. She had been responsible of Arendelle integration into Norway, of its rename to Arendal. It wasn't only due to Arendelle not having any importance on the global playing field, but also to better protect Elsa's secret. Despite it having been Ingunn's idea Elsa felt responsible for the disappearance of the kingdom, though she couldn't complain about the results. The stories about the Ice Queen of Arendelle had become rumors during Ingunn's rein and had faded into the local myths and fairy tales afterwards.

Ingunn's descendants and by extension Anna and Elsa's still lived in the castle, though for the most part it was a tourist attraction nowadays to boost the income of the small city that was Arendal in addition to the fishing and woodcutting businesses. However it had been decided that the descendants of the royal family would no longer be buried on the royal hill.

Drying up her tears Elsa walked down from said hill towards the graveyard proper. There was one more grave that she wanted to visit – well, in truth there were far more that she wanted to see as she remembered everyone she had interacted with as Queen and as assistant to Anna, but it was getting cold and she'd have to warm up before she'd go over to the next part of her journey.

Not far from the hill in a corner of the graveyard that had been traditionally used for the servants of the royal family she stepped in front of the grave of her... well... adoptive grandparents. She had never met the parents of her father, them having died before Elsa's birth and the parents of Elsa's mother had ruled another of the small kingdoms of that time, so they weren't around much anyway. Thus it was no wonder that Elsa as well as Anna looked at Kai and Gerda like they truly were their grandparents and the couple had cared for the two girls as if they were their grandchildren – they never had children of their own.

The grave in front of Elsa looked – like most graves in the yard – more Christian with its tombstone and the area in front of it with flowers and such, in contrast to the royal graves in the hill which took their cue from their Norse ancestors with their huge monoliths. Considering that Elsa had made sure that the grave of Kai and Gerda would be payed for from an anonymous fund that she restocked here and then, was it that surprising to read the words “Beloved grandparents and friends” on the weathered marble surface?

With a last sigh that she addressed at all the deaths Elsa had witnessed and would continue to witness she walked back towards the graveyard's entry, glancing in the direction of other graves that held people she had cared for. The Admiral of the Arendellian Navy for example, another person who had been in on the secret of Elsa's powers during the separation of the two royal sisters. Another was the grave of the bishop who had crowned her and had been – like the Admiral – a column of support on the Royal Council, especially in her early years of reign.

Before she'd go beam back to the _Hammond_ however she decided that she needed some hot chocolate to both warm and cheer herself up.

* * *

 

Around an hour and a cup of chocolate later Elsa was back on the Hammond and talking with Samantha Carter, this time however about Elsa's next target: her ice palace.

“So it's right in the middle of that blizzard?”, Sam asked, her eyes trained on the display that showed the area of the North Mountain from above, an area that for more than hundred years had been shrouded by clouds.

Elsa nodded. “Yes, I had to protect it from curious people, a localized, strong blizzard was the best idea I could come up with and nowadays it also protects it from satellite images.”

“According to the sensors it's absolutely freezing there.”

Elsa pointed at the center of the cloud. “There should be a pocket of warmth right here. The Asgard sensors should be able to pierce through it.”

Sam played a bit with the controls and indeed a structure became visible in the middle of the maelstrom.

“Okay, now I'm impressed. So we beam you right at the doorstep?”

“Everything else would be suicide in this body. In my own body I could just walk up there and right through the blizzard, but I don't have my powers with me.”

Sam turned towards Elsa and grabbed her shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. “If anything goes wrong, please don't hesitate to call.”

Elsa smiled at the other woman's worries for her. It was a bit like she had treated Anna in the past, especially when her younger sister had to go on tours through the kingdom.

“I will, though I doubt that anything will go wrong.”

Not five minutes later Elsa found herself standing in front of the massive doors of her ice palace, everywhere around it the swirling of the eternal blizzard that Elsa had conjured years past. For sure that storm had been quite a mystery for scientists, but they hadn't yet managed to pierce it either by themselves – at least the first foolish ones – or with any technological devices like robots, she had made sure of it. One could say she had put a bit of sentience into the storm so that it could react to any intruders approaching from outside. Which was about the only reason that she didn't find herself at its mercy as well right now: she hadn't approached from the outside, but had literally appeared inside it. Once she was back on Earth together with her body and powers she'd probably need to refine this loophole.

Reaching out she knocked on one of the massive door wings, the noise, despite her mittens echoing through the structure of the ice palace.

At first nothing happened, but then she began to hear voices from inside.

“... worry too much. Probably just some girl scouts selling cookies.”

Elsa shook her head at Olaf's theory with a smile on her face.

“Mamma's orders were clear. No one should come here.” Marshmallow's deep voice boomed through her body despite the ice walls separating them.

“Now shh and let me talk.” Olaf's voice was now directly on the other side of the door. “Who's there? And don't say the interrupting cow, that's an old one.”

Elsa suppressed a giggle. Her snowman would never change.

“My name's Sharon, I'm a friend of Elsa.”

It hurt her that she'd need to lie directly at her... children, but they didn't know that she hadn't even been on the planet for the past six years – a few sporadic visits aside. Telling them the truth while inhabiting a foreign body did seem neither right nor fair.

The doors in front of her opened and see saw that Olaf had noticed nothing of her thoughts and instead jumped up and down on the spot.

“Oh, a friend of Elsa!” He giggled, it was that strange gurgling giggle of his. “Do you want to come in?”

Marshmallow however interrupted his brother's invitation. “You are not scared?”, he boomed at Elsa.

She smiled at the big snowman. “No. Elsa has told me about you and she's told me that you especially aren't normally as scary as you look. In fact she described you as a stern guardian with a heart of gold.”

That was indeed her opinion. Marshmallow was a wonderful guardian, who took his job seriously. And yet he always found time to play with his brothers be it Olaf or any of the many Snowgies. Not to mention the time she had introduced Anna to Marshmallow after her infamous winter. Anna had told her afterwards that she had never received an as strong and as _warm_ hug.

Right now however if the snowman could have blushed then he would have done so. At least he shied away a bit from the door.

“Mama said that?”, he asked after a few moments.

Elsa nodded and Marshmallow stepped aside, a silent invitation. He wasn't a snowman of many words after all.

“Come in, come in!”, Olaf shouted, grabbing Elsa's hand with one of his stick hands and dragging her into the castle proper.

“Woah!”, she said in mock surprise once Olaf had released her and she had a chance to fake a look around, noticing quite some snowgies scuttling around, some even looking at her with their large coal eyes. “I mean Elsa has showed me a model of the ice palace, but the real thing is so much more beautiful!”

“It is, right? And it even changes color sometimes.”

That completely derailed Elsa's train of thought. “What?”

“Yeah. Most of the time it's this beautiful blue, but some times it becomes a darker blue, violet, red or worse yet yellow.” He shuddered. “Yellow and ice is a no go.”

Elsa thought back at the time she had first inhabited the ice palace right after she had built it. Faintly she remembered the colors changing, probably due to her emotions. Could it... could it really be that she had a connection to this place that was more than sentimental?

She crouched down to be as good as possible on eye level with Olaf. “And how often did yellow occur in the last few years?” She had to test that theory. “Do you have an idea why the ice palace changes colors?”

The misfigured snowman looked in thought. “The last few weeks yellow appeared rather often. And sometimes there are splashes of orange.” Orange? Yellow would represent fear, she figured, but orange? “Before that it what rather calm for a month or two. The five years before that we also had our regular light show.”

She quietly gulped. The weeks since she'd been on _Destiny_ , the calm months on Icarus base and the five years on _Atlantis_. It _had_ to be.

“As for the why...”, the snowman continued, “Anna had always said that Elsa was very emotional and that she had created this place on an emotional high. Maybe it's somehow connected to Elsa no matter where she is, even if she's further away than ever.”

Elsa blinked. “What?”

“Yeah, right now she feels further away than I've ever felt her in the last nearly six years, though I already thought that the first five were already a new record. During the calm two months a few weeks ago she felt closer again, but now...” He shrugged.

Elsa's snowman could feel her presence, no, her body's, her power's, their life source's presence. And she had to learn that, what, 160 years after she had made him?

She turned to Marshmallow, the behemoth of a snowman still standing nearby. “Marshmallow, do you feel Elsa as well?”

He slowly nodded, grumbling something that sounded like an acknowledgment.

She turned back to Olaf. “What about Elsa? Does she know?”

Olaf looked at her in thought. “I don't know. We had never mentioned this. Considering that she made us however, I'd say I think so.”

Oh no. She had no clue of this and her... her... her _children_ thought she knew. She was a disappointment! She was useless as a mother!

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, the unfamiliar hormones of her borrowed body getting the better of her. She had to get out of here! She had to _run_.

“I- I see that you're all well.” She righted herself, barely containing herself. “I can't stay however, du- duty calls.”

“Okay. Bye Sharon! It was nice to talk to you”, Olaf said cheerfully while Marshmallow opened the door for her.

Thankfully the door closed with a last “Bye!” as soon as she had stepped over the threshold and she reached for the radio to key it while the tears started flow.

“ _Hammond_ , here El... Sharon, beam me up.”

A few moments later the white light engulfed her and she was back in the wide room with the view of Earth. She collapsed right away into a crying heap of human flesh, thankful that she didn't have to care about her powers, that she could just weep without checking that she didn't plunge the ship or worse the planet into the next ice age.

She didn't know how long she had been on the floor when arms wrapped around her and a female voice started to sooth her.

“Shhhhh. It's okay, Elsa.”

“It's-it's not okay, Sam”, Elsa replied. “I'm-I'm a terrible mo-mother.”

While she felt Sam rubbing circles on her back she leant into the embrace provided by the other woman.

“I'm sure you're not as terrible as you think you are. Do you want to tell we what happened?”

“O-Olaf told me that he a-and the other snowmen have some kind of-of connection with me, they-they feel that I'm not on the planet, th-that I'm not even in the galaxy right now.”

“And you didn't know that till now?” Sam's voice was free of any accusation, there was mere curiosity and support.

“No”, Elsa replied so low that she didn't know whether Sam even heard her.

Apparently she did however as the embrace tightened.

“It took more than one and a half centuries and a foreign body for me to learn that, Sam”, Elsa explained. “What kind of mother am I that I didn't know of this essential connection?”

The two women were quiet for a while, the humming of the _Hammond_ sometimes interrupted by Elsa's sobs.

“I'm sure you would have learned about your connection if something should have happened to your snowmen.”

Elsa wriggled herself a bit out of the embrace, looking into Sam's blue eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Whether you knew about the connection or not, it's part of you. And considering what I know about you and your powers I'm sure that you'd know about any of your children being in danger if that were the case. You're simply not consciously aware of it.”

Elsa dropped her head on Sam's shoulder. She hoped the other woman was right, that Elsa didn't know about the connection, because she didn't _need_ to.

“Thank you, An- Sam.” Now that had been a close one, but Sam had caught it nevertheless.

She felt the other woman smile. “I'm honored that you confuse me with your sister, it's about the best compliment one can get in such a situation.”

That brought a smile to Elsa's face as well.

* * *

 

Elsa had spent the next hours recuperating in the guest quarters that had been assigned to her and eating a few bites at the mess hall.

The newest insights were still nagging at her as she met up with Sam for the next trip to the surface, but at least she was in a state of mind that allowed her to hold it together.

“I think that should be enough”, Sam said, eyeing Elsa's clothes.

Elsa had told her that she'd go to a location with hot springs and geysers and that the full winter gear she had worn before would probably be – literally – overkill. A quick check with the sensors of the _Hammond_ had confirmed that the area had comfortable twelve degrees centigrade – comfortable at least compared to the surrounding area with around minus ten to nearly minus twenty. Only marginally had Elsa noticed that she had to convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius yet again. Oh how she missed the time on _Atlantis_. Due to it being an international team – and the leading scientist being a Canadian – it had been decided that they'd use the metric system including the Celsius scale, but here on a ship commanded by the Air Force there had been no such luck.

“I hope you're right”, Elsa answered, straightening the cozy pullover.

Due to her powers she had no real idea about what kind of clothes were appropriate for what temperature. Oh, she had quite some experience picking some that at least looked like she had dressed accordingly, but unlike in the past she had to take care of a body that _was_ bothered by the cold. Thankfully Sam had decided to help her with this.

“I'm basing this on how I'd dress myself if I'd go down there”, Sam said. “You sure I shouldn't come?”

Elsa could see that scientific gleam in Sam's eyes that she had seen throughout that year the woman had spent as leader of _Atlantis_. Sam was curious by nature and considering that she knew about the trolls and now also about her location it had taken quite some convincing by Elsa for the other woman to let it go. At least today she wouldn't get to meet them, it would be hard enough to convince them of who she was, introducing a new person as well... No, she would do this once she was back on Earth again in her _own_ body.

“Okay, you ready?”, Sam asked.

Elsa nodded. “As ready as I can get.”

“Then... have fun.”

Sam pressed a button on the console next to her and again Elsa was engulfed by a white light and buzzing noise, at least until the light receded and had been replaced by the nearly extraterrestrial looking landscape of the Valley of the Living Rock. She still had to walk a bit, but albeit the temperature had dropped suddenly she was already close enough that she could feel the influence of the volcanic hotspot that was below them.

 _Funny that the hotspot has never wandered_ , Elsa mused.

She had found that a hotspot powered the hot springs in the area thanks to the Asgard sensors that Sam had used to scan the area.

Thankfully one of her last acts as Queen and the confirmation of that act not only by her successor Anna, but also by the next generation represented by Ingunn had ensured that the valley had been saved from tourists. The edict had ensured that while people were allowed to enter the area – the trolls would hide themselves anyway – it was strictly forbidden to alter the area in any way and severe punishments were the consequence of such an act. When Ingunn had prepared the kingdom for its union with Norway she had made sure that the new government wouldn't be able to change that, at least with a guarantee for the next hundred years or so, a timeframe that was still ongoing.

After a few minutes of walking Elsa had reached the core of the valley, a large, even well of which the ground and the inclined stone walls were partially covered in lush moss, not to mention all the stone balls that resided on the ground.

She moved into the middle of the well, making sure that she didn't shove any of the stones.

“Trolls!”, she yelled. No reaction. “I know that you're here. I'm Queen Elsa of Arendelle, please show yourself!” Even after her 'abdication' the trolls still considered her as Queen, thus announcing herself as such would have the highest chance of a reaction.

At first nothing happened, but then she noticed that some of the stones started to sway which soon incorporated all stones in the well. And then the stones turned to the rock trolls that had influenced the life of her family in so many ways. Not necessarily by their direct doing, but what they had said or had not said.

The trolls were looking at her with skepticism, there were some murmurs that she didn't look like Elsa.

The crowd to her left parted and an old troll that was so much older than herself, a cape of moss trailing behind him, stepped through his people.

“You claim to be Queen Elsa and yet you bear no resemblance to her. Explain yourself or let me assure you that you won't remember any of this.” While he said this he was pointing his small, wooden staff at her in a threatening gesture.

Elsa knew that she had to be honest with the trolls. They _had_ the ability to make her lose her memories, Anna's childhood had been a prime example of that, though Elsa didn't know what effect that would have on either her or Sharon.

“Grand Pabbie”, Elsa began, “once you told me, when my parents brought me and Anna here, that my powers would only grow and that fear would be my enemy.”

The eyes not only of the eldest troll, but also of the other trolls widened at the recognition of the words that had been spoken all those decades ago.

“While Elsa might have simply told you that, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Tell your tale and we'll decide whether to believe you”, Grand Pabbie said.

Elsa inclined her head. “It's nothing more that I expect.”

It had been quite a while ago, around ten years since she'd been here last. At first, after Anna's and then Kristoff's deaths she had been here more frequently, but with time the rate of visits dropped until she only visited every decade or so. Where should she begin her story? Ah, there.

She cleared her throat. “You might remember me telling you that humanity had reached for the stars, that we had sent men to the moon, that we have space stations and satellites.” She saw some of the trolls nod. “Well, it turned out that humanity had gone further than that.”

“What do you mean?”, one of the female trolls, Bulda asked.

“Back in the twenties an... artifact had been found in Egypt, one of which the purpose hadn't been known at least not until the nineties.” Elsa inhaled. Thankfully she had skimmed the reports about the Stargate and its recent history often enough. Not that this would have made any difference with her eidetic memory. “It turned out that it had been a device, a gateway to the stars, something that nowadays is simply called a 'Stargate' and had been called 'astria porta' by its creators.”

She saw the eyes of the trolls widen, but especially something about Grand Pabbie's eyes irked her, though she couldn't say what exactly.

“With the help of the Stargate it was possible to travel to other planets instantly. And I don't mean the planets in our solar system, no I mean planets that orbit around other stars. Remember that I had told you about the first discovered exoplanet?”

Again some of the trolls nodded.

“That planet had been a gas giant, but with the Stargate hundreds of Earth-like planets were just a step away. But it didn't end there. Humanity had send out teams to research the gate and the planets, but in the progress they had also made enemies. Among them parasites that need humans as hosts and like to pose as gods. They are called Goa'uld and had taken humans as slaves and servants from Earth to their planets till around three thousand years BC when humanity successfully rebelled and buried the Stargate.”

She had also heard something about a time machine some time ago, that a team consisting of Jack O'Neill, Samantha Carter as well as the archaeologist and linguist Daniel Jackson and the Jaffa Teal'c had travelled to the past to get their hands on a ZPM that had been used by the Goa'uld Ra – though he used it as a ceremonial object. The four had then helped that the rebellion would be successful. Self fulfilling time loops were definitely a source of a headache however.

“But humanity has also found allies. It turned out that there were once four great races that ensured piece in the galaxy. One of them had been the builders of Stargates and they called themselves Alterans while we call them Ancients. Then there were the Asgard, a technologically powerful race that were among the few who successfully managed to oppose the Goa'uld and protected planets in the disguise of our Norse gods.”

Elsa smirked. To imagine that the mighty, all powerful Thor was in reality a diminutive, blue-grey alien with large, black almond eyes. Though he definitely had been mighty thanks to the technology of his race.

“Then there are the Nox that while as powerful as the Ancients and Asgard if not more they love nature and peace. They might be the oldest race in the galaxy considering that they call everyone else as 'young'. And finally there are the Furling, a race we sadly don't have much information on as we've never been able to meet them.”

She herself has only met the Asgard and once a group of Ancients that had tried to reach the Milky Way by flying close to light speed with their damaged ship – thus they hadn't aged much since their departure ten thousand years ago. The Furling however... humanity didn't even know how they looked like. Their name – probably falsely so – suggested something furry like the Wookies or Ewoks from Star Wars. However guesses had also gone to the other extreme with large insect-like beings.

“After some years the location of _Atlantis_ , the city of the myths and legends had been found and that's when I had been called in. That was around six years ago and I not only left the planet, but also this galaxy as it had turned out that _Atlantis_ is not only a city, but also a gigantic space ship and her builders, the Ancients had fled from a plaque here in the Milky Way to the Pegasus galaxy.”

She looked around her audience. They looked captured by her tale and some, especially Grand Pabbie sported a look of recognition. Probably they had indeed heard about the Atlantis myth, just as she had expected.

“However things didn't end there. We stumbled upon a much older experiment of the Ancients, a ship they had sent out into the depths of the universe: _Destiny_. And that's where I am right now, or more precisely where my body is right now. We are too far away to return for now, but thanks to a device built by the Ancients and refined by us we are able to communicate with Earth by temporarily swap the consciousness of two persons. So the consciousness of this body, Sharon Walker is right now in my body while I'm in hers.”

Thus she ended her tale. Now it was up to the trolls, especially Grand Pabbie to either believe her or not. If not she'd experience the troll's memory magic first hand if she wasn't fast enough to call the _Hammond_ for an emergency beam out.

“A fascinating tale, Elsa”, Grand Pabbie said after some moments of silence. “I believe you.”

She released a breath she hadn't known she had held.

“Than-”

“However”, the old troll interrupted her, “there is an inaccuracy in your story that I'd like to correct.”

“Huh?” How could he know? He hadn't been with her. Or was it something he could do thanks to his magic?

“You said that you didn't meet the Furling. That is incorrect.”

“What? But... how can you know? You haven't met them either. You didn't even leave the planet!”, Elsa exclaimed.

Grand Pabbie shook his head with a smile. “The Nox are probably right to call you 'young'. Elsa, we don't need to meet the Furling, because we _are_ the Furling.”

If it would have been physically possible Elsa's jaw would have hit the ground. As it was however it opened as far as it could with her eyes just as wide. Her gaping probably looked funny for the trolls... ehm... Furling... ehm... whatever. At least they restrained themselves.

It... it couldn't be... All these decades she had talked to members of the fourth Great Race.

“But... but how? Why?”, she finally managed to press out.

“When the Alterans returned from the Pegasus galaxy and saw their new offspring on Earth they asked us to keep an eye on them as they wouldn't be able to do so by themselves, with them preparing for their ascension.” He reached up with his hands and created images of space ships out of what looked like fragments of northern lights. “We came down and settled on various locations, keeping a low profile”, he winked at her, “maybe starting a few legends here and then. We kept an eye on humanity and especially on those humans that had Ancient genes.”

“You... you knew?!”, Elsa nearly yelled. “You knew why I have my powers, my immortality?!”

“Yes, but let me assure you, Elsa”, the old troll appeased, “telling you the truth was out of the question. Would you have believed me if I told you that you are a descendant of an alien race that had populated the galaxy millions of years ago and that we are an alien race as well?”

Elsa thought this over for a few moments before she admitted, her shoulders slumping: “No, I wouldn't have.”

“Now however you know the truth. And it won't hurt either if you notify your superiors.”

Elsa reached for the button to key her radio, but then she stopped, a thought occurring her. “You said that you came down here. Did you come by ship? Does it still exist?”

Grand Pabbie began to smile. “We're standing on it.”

“What? But the _Hammond_ 's sensors detected a magma chamber below us, not a ship.”

“What kind of sensors are you using on your ships?”, Grand Pabbie asked while keeping his smile.

That was kind of a hard question as she hadn't engineered the ships nor did she work on them regularly. However she had overheard the one or other piece of information in the past years.

“It's a mixture of originally human technology, Goa'uld and Asgard sensors. I think they want to add Ancient ones next.”

“That would explain it”, the troll said with a thoughtful nod. “The Asgard had never really managed to pierce our shifting cloak. With Ancient sensors you might at least pick up that something isn't right.” Grand Pabbie paused for a few moments and then continued. “May I ask you something, Elsa?”

She nodded.

“Why is it that you have access to Asgard technology? They normally aren't that eager to share their technology.”

This time it was Elsa who smiled, at least until her smile got tinged by the sad feelings for the demise of this magnificent race.

“We helped them repeatedly defeating an enemy, becoming their allies in the process. They first gifted us with their technology with the requirement of an Asgard operator on our ships, but then their genetic degeneration progressed too far and they decided to commit mass suicide and gifted us _all_ their technology including their mind copies. They even admitted that we had become the Fifth race after merely around a decade of using the Stargate.”

Grand Pabbie looked to be in thought. After a while he answered: “We knew that humanity was promising, but we hadn't expected you to be that promising. It's a pity that the Asgard haven't found a solution for their genetic degeneration.”

If there had been one mistake that the Asgard had committed it was their extensive cloning of their bodies. When an Asgard had died his mind had been downloaded into a new body. This cloning however had the side effect of their bodies deteriorating to the point of them no longer being able to sexually reproduce. They had tried to find for solutions to this problem, but in the end it had been too late. The human scientists – at least those that were involved with the Stargate project – hoped that based on the Asgard research they'd be able to find a solution to help their ally. After all the Asgard always praised humanity's unique solutions to problems.

Elsa finally reached for the button on her radio. “ _Hammond_ , here Elsa.”

“ _Here_ Hammond _”_ , a male voice, probably the communications officer, answered, _“how may we help you?”_

“I need to speak to Colonel Carter, is she available?” It would be best to rely this to General O'Neill through Sam.

“ _I'm here, what gives, Elsa?”_ Apparently Sam had been nearby. That would make things easier for Elsa.

She took a deep breath. “Believe it or not, but I've met the Furling.”

Slowly she counted the seconds the that passed without any answer, exchanging amused glances with Grand Pabbie and the other trolls.

“ _WHAT?!_ _Where? How? Why?”_ , was Sam's unprofessional response. The idea of finally meeting the Furling had to have derailed Sam more than Elsa had expected as it took quite a bit to turn the woman into such a sputtering mess.

“It's the trolls, Sam. Now the faster you find General O'Neill the faster you can come down here and shoot your questions.”

“ _I... uhm... yes. Of course. We'll be down soon. Savajon, get me the Gen-”_

At that point the connection was closed. Probably Savajon had been the communication officer Elsa had spoken to earlier and now he had closed the connection to establish a new one to General O'Neill. Elsa turned to Grand Pabbie.

“They should come soon.”

Still feeling a bit overwhelmed by the knowledge that the trolls were in fact one of the great Four Races, Elsa had sat down on one of the stones at the edge of the valley – one that wasn't a troll, ehm, Furling – and waited. Thankfully she didn't have to wait for long as soon a buzzing noise near her told her of the impending transport and a moment later a flash of light deposited three people near her. She could immediately place Sam and General O'Neill, however she hadn't expected the third person: Doctor Daniel Jackson, the leading archaeologist and linguist of the Stargate program.

“What did I tell you about not getting into trouble?”, O'Neill immediately accused Elsa once he had spotted her.

She knew however that he didn't mean it, so she shook her head with a smile, stood up and greeted the three with wide arms. “Welcome to the Valley of the Living Rock!”

“What a cozy place”, General O'Neill joked while he looked around. “That the Furling?”, he asked, pointing into the direction of Grand Pabbie and his people.

“Yes, they are.” Elsa turned to Doctor Jackson. “Doctor Jackson, it's nice to see you again.”

“Likewise. Though I think we can drop the formality now. I'm Daniel.” He reached out with his hand.

“Elsa. But you should know that already anyway”, Elsa replied with a wink and shook his hand. “Now come on”, she exclaimed waving all three along, “let me introduce you.”

All four walked over to where Grand Pabbie was standing.

“Grand Pabbie, may I introduce you to General O'Neill, leader of Homeworld Security, Colonel Samantha Carter, commanding officer of the _George Hammond_ and scientist by life and Doctor Daniel Jackson, archaeologist and linguist.” Elsa had pointed to each one she had introduced.

“My pleasure”, the troll responded, “I'm Grand Pabbie, leader of my people around here. These are Bulda, my second in command and Cliff, my apprentice and potential successor.” He had pointed at the female troll with yellow and pink fire crystals who had been Kristoff's adoptive mother as well as a male troll with blue crystals.

“Excuse my curiosity”, Sam said as she crouched down to be more on eye level with the trolls. “But are these control crystals?” She pointed at the crystals around the troll's necks and Elsa's eyes bulged. How had she never noticed?!

“We call them fire crystals, dear”, Bulda responded, holding up the necklace with her crystals. “However the Alterans had indeed called them control crystals and they are an important part of many of our and their technology.”

“Did you find them around here?”, Sam asked, here eyes sparkling with hope. As far as Elsa knew it was hard to find control crystals and thus a steady source would be more than welcome.

“We grow them”, Bulda replied and immediately Sam's eyes went wide, just like Elsa's, Daniel's and O'Neill's.

“You... you grow them?”

“Yes, we do”, Grand Pabbie said. “Maybe we'll show you how in the near future, but first we need to talk about a couple of other topics. Come.” He waved them over. “Let's head to a more comfortable place.”

* * *

 

Anna was bored. She had thought keeping an eye on Sharon Walker in Elsa's body would have been more entertaining, but the love the woman had for Camile Wray had been more than enough to keep the ice powers at bay. Not that she hadn't known that it would go this way, after all she had been told about that this would happen. But she hadn't expected it to be _this_ boring.

At least now she knew how Elsa had felt when she had to keep an eye on Anna. No, that wasn't right, cause Anna wasn't boring. She'd always find a way to entertain Elsa be it something that brought a smile on her face or got her to roll her eyes. That had been good times, back home in Arendelle. Anna sighed in melancholy remembering all this.

During the first day Camile had shown Sharon the ship and like most people she had been mesmerized by the observation deck which showed the artificial star the ship was flying towards – though unlike the first time with everyone aboard _Destiny_ wasn't flying into it, but around it.

That artificial star system did nag at Anna however. She was supposed to be an all powerful energy being and yet she didn't know who had created it. She only knew _that_ it had been created and that the time had been around hundred years after the seed ships had passed through. Was it a coincidence that it lay directly on the route of _Destiny_? She didn't know. Once Elsa was back maybe she'd take a look at the obelisk down on the planet as that had to be some source of information.

For once she felt disappointed that she was too far away from the Milky Way to have any real contact with the other Ascended. Not far enough for them to intervene if she should overstep any rules – lucky them – but far enough that they couldn't help her investigate this either. Oh joy. The perks of being all powerful energy beings...

She sighed again and leaned back onto the wall she was standing at. At least she had _Destiny_ to talk to, though right now the artificial intelligence was giving Anna some alone time.

 _Hah! Spoiled brat_ , she thought with a pout.

When she had stepped through the Stargate together with Elsa and the other evacuees of Icarus base she hadn't expected the AI to be like this. She had thought with her age of around forty million years she'd be the among the wisest consciousness in the universe and just as fair and aloof as the AIs of _Atlantis_ and the other large Alteran or Lantean facilities. But somewhere during _Destiny_ 's evolution something must have gone wrong. Maybe it was all the time the AI had to spend alone – the other AIs were already fully developed when they had been abandoned and had to be alone only for a relatively short time.

 _Destiny_ definitely wasn't wise. Oh, she had knowledge and much of it, but in her behavior she was more like a pubescent teenager going through her rebellious phase. And the worst was that the AI would probably never grow out of it anymore. The knowledge of Earth's younger past that _Destiny_ had glimpsed through the crew – most importantly Elsa, but also the others – didn't help either, cause now the AI had decided that gothic steampunk was right up her alley. Though maybe not _that_ surprising considering the makeup of the ship compared to the streamlined, shiny _Atlantis_.

Anna tried to shake off the thoughts of the artificial intelligence and looked back at the bulkhead door behind which lay Camile's room and which her and Sharon had retreated into. Sharon did have a surprisingly good handling of Elsa's powers. Anna had expected more slip ups than there had been. Only the first few hours after the swap Sharon had struggled a bit, but since then everything went well. Even now with the two women being intimate with each other – the main reason Anna wasn't inside the room, she wasn't a pervert after all – Anna couldn't feel any power slips. However Anna knew that not all the control Sharon showed was coming from herself, Anna didn't know the extent however as she didn't like to poke around in her sister's mind even if said sister didn't inhabit the body.

Anna felt a shift in the atmosphere inside the room.

 _Ah, she's back_ , she thought with a smile.

Moments later the bulkhead door opened and Elsa stepped out, her open hair ruffled, wearing nothing but an icy negligee, her clothes and boots clasped in her arms. Most importantly however her face was redder than Anna had ever seen it. Elsa looked around the empty corridor to orient herself before she ran off towards her own room.

With a sigh Anna transferred her energy to Elsa's room, waiting at the windows – invisible however for now – for her sister to enter. Elsa must have done quite a run as not even a minute later the doors opened and said blonde entered. She pressed the door control and collapsed down along the now closed door, her clothes still in her arms. She was panting heavily, though how much was from the run and how much from the previous activities of her body Anna couldn't tell.

“Seems like you came back in the perfect moment”, Anna said after a few moments of rest, slowly turning herself visible so she wouldn't startle her sister.

Elsa fixed Anna with her eyes, a weak smile flashing on her face.

“It's not as if I hadn't expected them to do this. _I_ gave them my permission after all. But...” Elsa's face reddened again after it had regained a bit of its usual pale complexion. “But it's different to go from feeling completely calm to a highly aroused body, not to mention being eaten out.”

Anna walked over to the door and sat down next to her sister. “I wonder how Sharon must feel.” She tapped a finger on her chin in thought. “She went from aroused to calm in the blink of an eye. That must have been like an emergency brake. How close was your body to orgasm?”

“Anna!”, Elsa exclaimed with wide eyes.

Anna however merely shrugged. “What? It's not often that one can study these kind of effects of the stones. And at least it's not as dangerous as one of the two being in pain.”

Elsa pinched the bridge of her nose. “For the love of...”

“Me?”, Anna provided with a wide smile.

Her sister looked up, blinked a few times, then rolled her eyes. Finally she said with a sigh: “Yes, you.”

“Great! I know you love me, sis!”, Anna squealed. “Anyway... how was your visit to Earth?”

A smile crossed Elsa's face. “I've talked with Sam, visited our family's graves as well as Olaf and Marshmallow.”

Anna noticed that the smile left Elsa's face for a moment, wondering what had happened at the ice palace.

“And then I went to the trolls”, Elsa continued. “Did you know...”

“That they're the Furling?” Anna shrugged. “Of course I did.”

Elsa sighed, closed her eyes and let her head fall back onto the door. “'Course you did”, she mumbled. “How long did you know?”, Elsa asked, looking at Anna again.

“The other Ascended gave me a rather quick rundown of the galactic history when I ascended and over the decades I learned the remainder to fill in the blanks.”

Elsa nodded. “Anyway. The trolls... Furling... whatever said that they'd support us with their knowledge and technology if we'd help them to find the remainder of their race both on Earth and the galaxy as a whole.”

“Yeah, they're rather scattered since they managed to destroy their own homeworld”, Anna provided with a solemn smile.

Elsa turned around and fixed Anna with a glare. “Wait. They _destroyed_ their homeworld?”

Anna winced. _Oh fuck, oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. She didn't know! I said too much!_ She could only hope that she hadn't said enough to have the other Ascended punish her. That wouldn't do. Anna shook her head. “I said too much already, Elsa. Please don't press it.”

Elsa looked at her for a few more seconds, then relented and sunk back onto the bulkhead door.

“I take it that we'll have to ask Grand Pabbie himself about it, hmm?”

Anna nodded. “That would probably be for the best.” She exhaled in relief that the other Ascended hadn't intervened due to her slip up.

* * *

 

The remaining weeks of their fly-by maneuver passed without much fanfare. The most fun had been as Elsa had told the others about her having met the Furling, though during all those talks she had avoided Camile's gaze like hell.

Additionally Elsa had tried together with some of the other engineers to find a programming adapter for control crystals – successful – and raw control crystals themselves – unsuccessful – thus they still couldn't put their newfound toy to use. At least Brody and Lisa had somewhat managed to repair the second shuttle and as they had come into range of the mysterious planet again that had indeed come in handy.

Most of those that had gone to the planet had decided to stay there, something that especially upset Colonel Young as Lieutenant Scott, TJ and some of the other soldiers had been part of it. So he had taken the shuttle down to the surface – with the warning that it would probably not be able to leave it anymore – and tried to talk some sense into the people there. He even had a PADD with him that showed the people that the planet would soon enter a very cold season, but most of the civilians that had already decided to stay stood with their decision. For the military personnel the Colonel had simply ordered their return.

Elsa shook her head while she walked through _Destiny_ 's corridors.

A pity that it had to come that far. Did they even think about the others aboard? That they wouldn't have the choice to stay down there or up here due to the time constraints? Not to mention that they still didn't know who had created that planet and the solar system? Dr. Caine – one of those who had stayed back in the end – had talked about some divine intervention even if it should turn out that it had been merely advanced aliens to construct the planet. He had theorized that the planet had been created for _them_ to stay on and that once the creators would return that they'd provide them with a way home. The others had wanted to stay back for various reasons, the most valid one – in Elsa's opinion – had been TJ's.

Seems like the woman had gotten pregnant before they had left Icarus base as she was currently suffering through the typical morning sickness that came along with a pregnancy. Her reason had been to raise the child in a secure location, not a tens of millions of years old ship. Elsa scoffed. As if they could have determined whether the planet was secure or not in a mere month. Their only chance for survival right now _was_ the ship. Period. End of discussion.

In the end Colonel Young had returned with the working shuttle, crates of provisions that had been collected during the month, all the military personnel and some of the civilians including Chloe who originally had opted to stay behind as well. Probably her desire to stay with Scott had helped her decision.

They had lost seven members of the crew due to this. Seven too many in Elsa's opinion. They hadn't died yet, but for the crew on _Destiny_ they were essentially lost forever.

At least the provisions had payed off however. Once they had been back in FTL they had a small feast in the mess hall and the dishes that Airman Becker had come up with had been delicious. They still had enough to last for a few weeks and a bunch of seeds that they could try to grow plants with.

What she still had made no progress with was the master code of _Destiny_. From her experience in the chair she _knew_ that it had to do with her genetic makeup, but she didn't know what exactly of her genetic code was required as a key. Were the Ancient gene sequences enough? Or should she add other Ancient gene sequences so that she'd have the complete genetic code of an Ancient woman? There were just too many variables and the password prompt of _Destiny_ didn't provide any hints either. It just said whether the entered code sequence was correct or not. At least she didn't need to wait if she entered a wrong code or fear a complete lockout. Good thing that the Ancients weren't _that_ paranoid.

Elsa turned left into another corridor, greeting a crew member in passing.

Then of course there had been her return to _Destiny_ , or more precisely the return to her highly aroused body. Her and Camile still weren't able to look at each other at least not without blushing. And Anna's question about how close her body had been to an orgasm had been valid as well even if Elsa didn't want to admit it. While she was fleeing from Camile's room, merely wearing a hastily conjured negligee, clutching her clothes as if her life depended on it, her body had yearned for more, for release. It was a difference if she merely pleasured herself or someone else was doing it and it was a feeling she didn't have for quite a while.

It thus wasn't that unexpected that her feet had carried her to the door she was now standing in front of. She pressed the button that would announce her and waited, hoping that this wouldn't be a mistake, that it wouldn't cost a friendship she valued.

The door opened, revealing the face of Lisa Park. She was still wearing her day clothes as it was merely early evening.

“Elsa? What a surprise”, she said with a smile. “What may I do for you?”

Elsa fiddled a bit with her fingers, her nervousness suddenly catching up with her. “You... uhm... remember your sexual advances?”

Lisa blinked a few times before she answered, blushing a bit in the process. “Uh, yeah, what of them?”

“I'd like to answer them. Positively.”

Lisa's eyes went wide, but it didn't hold long as soon she grabbed Elsa hand and pulled her into her room. “Come in!”

Elsa had enough presence of her mind to press the door control button to close the door before Lisa rushed up to kiss her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you were at least a bit surprised at me having selected the trolls as the Furling. This scene was in fact one of the first I had written for this story, though I haven't used it as is (after all my writing did improve since then and the scene played out a bit differently than back then ;) ).  
> And I hope you liked the scenes with O'Neill and Sam. :)
> 
> Next up will be an all original chapter. :)


	17. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, well, well, look at that. Seems that Christmas came early. Or more likely that I finished late. *sigh* I'm sorry everyone for having taken so long again.
> 
> This chapter is - in my opinion - a rather important one, as it lays the groundwork for a change of dynamic in the crew. You'll probably understand what I'm implying once you've read it. ;)
> 
> Additionally this chapter - like the troll idea in the previous one - existed before the prologue in a raw draft. More about this after the chapter. ;)
> 
> Disclaimer: Everything related to Frozen is owned by Disney and everything related to the Stargate Franchise is owned by MGM.

It had been two days since _Destiny_ had left the strange, artificial star system, two days since Elsa had a very enjoyable night with Lisa Park – though they both had agreed that the night had been a one time thing. Especially due to the latter Elsa still felt full of vim and vigor so that working on unlocking the secret of _Destiny_ 's master code kept her up till late in the night. Not that she'd made any real progress aside from discarding more and more ideas how she herself could be the key to _Destiny_.

Elsa was sitting in front of her desk in her quarters, her laptop and her PADD in front of her, the former for calculating new solutions, the latter – through a connection to the laptop – providing a way to enter these solutions into the ship's systems. That was much more streamlined than having to manually enter each of the codes she wanted to check not to mention that the ability to connect their own hardware to the PADDs would probably pay off sooner or later – even though the connection was currently restricted to cables, but Elsa hoped to change that in the future.

Every now and then she looked out of the window above her desk. The streamers of the FTL flight traveled lazily along the small field of view provided by the transparent surface. Just like the northern lights back home the streamers had a calming effect on her, nearly as good as if she'd do meditation. Of course this effect of the aurorae had only come to light as soon as Anna had not asked her every night the sky had been awake to play and also once Elsa no longer had to worry about her powers. Despite that Elsa suspected that the calming effect of the northern lights had indeed also helped her during her time she had spent in isolation.

A red message on her laptop showed Elsa that her latest attempt at generating a suitable key had failed again. She let out a frustrated groan, folded her arms on the table in front of her and lowered her head onto them.

“There are simply too many possible solutions”, she mumbled. She'd need to find more restrictions that she could impose upon the values, find out what part of her own genetic code she'd need to use – at least that's what she assumed had been meant with her being the key, but even then the possibilities were basically endless. Entering her full genetic code had thankfully told her that the key had been too long, thus some kind of reduction and transformation of the information had to be done. That of course hadn't made her task of finding her solution any easier, especially if the Ancients had used an algorithm that hadn't yet been discovered by mankind which was almost definitely the case, considering that they had many million years of advance. Then again mankind had also learned quite a bunch of Ancient algorithms thanks to _Atlantis_ ' systems. But had they already found the algorithm she'd need to use? And even then the question was whether her whole genetic code would be needed as input or merely parts of it and if the latter then which parts.

Maybe she should visit the chair again? She might have been unconscious for days, but at least she had learned _something_. Another visit might prove equally useful.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Elsa startled so much that she nearly fell out of her chair. Gripping her chest where her heart was beating loud and fast she turned around to fix her sister with a glare.

“Anna! Whatever have I done to you to deserve this?”

“There isn't much else I could have done”, Anna supplied with a shrug. “I'd have preferred to tickle you, which would have probably sent you flying higher, but you know how things are with me and physical interactions.”

Elsa immediately noticed the tone of longing in her sister's voice.

“Oh, Anna, I'm sorry, I didn't mea-”

“Pish-posh”, Anna interrupted. “We both know that this is how things are between us and that neither can change that.”

Elsa let out a sigh. “I know.”

She noticed Anna looking at the ground and when her younger sibling's gaze returned, Elsa's eyebrow that had started to rise was rather sooner than later joined by _its_ sibling due to Anna fixing Elsa with a mischievous glint.

“You know, I thought being able to control your powers excluded this?” Anna gestured to the floor which finally led Elsa to look down there as well.

Seeing her chair surrounded by a jagged circle of ice led to her letting out another frustrated groan, however she immediately vanished the ice with a fluid motion of her hand.

“That's not funny”, Elsa said with a pout, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Anna giggled. “The ice itself probably not, but your reaction to my teasing definitely is.”

Elsa merely rolled her eyes in response.

“Anyway, how are things coming along with the master code?”

She had been close to smiling at her sister's antics, but the mention of that annoying code – and due to the advanced time of the day, or more precisely night – her frustration came out with full force.

“I don't get it, Anna!”, she exclaimed, louder than intended while standing up from her desk and facing her sister who was standing behind her. “There are so many combinations of algorithms and subsets of my genetic code that I don't know where to start not to mention where to end! What had Destiny thought, when she had told me that _I_ am the key to the ship?”

Anna shook her head and shot back: “You are thinking too complicated! You merely need to -”

That been as far as Anna had come before she had fallen apart into millions of tiny pieces only to be whipped away by an invisible force. It took Elsa a moment or two before she had mentally put together the literal pieces she had just seen, blinking stunned at the place her sister had been standing at.

“Anna!”, she exclaimed once she had managed to push through her stupor only to collapse to her knees right away. “Anna, no!”

What had she done? Tears started to swell in her eyes, slowly but surely finding their way down her cheeks. She had driven her sister to break the non-interference rule and now she was punished for that. Elsa began to sob, fully collapsing onto the floor into a crying heap of misery.

* * *

The mood Elsa entered the control room in was more than sour. Considering that she couldn't tell anyone that her sister had been an Ascended being this didn't help her in any way to get out of her morning shift.

She had cried herself to sleep where she had collapsed and had woken some time later in the night, the wall and the floor covered in ice – especially the immediate area around her however. With more effort than she had needed in decades – what use is love after all if the person you love had been whipped away, never to be seen again? – she had vanished the ice and climbed into her bed, spending the remaining night in a fitful sleep.

“Good morning, Elsa”, Eli greeted with a smile on his face that on any other day would have been contagious.

This day however she definitely wasn't in the mood for joyful greetings. “Morning”, she mumbled in response, merely nodding towards Rush who had nodded to her when she had gone past him.

However Eli wasn't as easily fooled. “Everything alright?”, Eli asked with evident concern in his voice.

“Bad night”, Elsa responded curtly, rubbing her temples to stress her point.

“Oh, yeah, I get that sometimes, too”, he replied with a wave of his hand. “Especially when the full moon shines through my windows, not that we do have one here. Or my room any windows.”

“While the light of the full moon might influence one's sleep it's more likely that one doesn't remember the nights without its influence that were spent with a restless sleep”, Rush threw in without even looking up from his console.

“Huh?”, was Eli's elaborate response.

“He's right”, Elsa said, not really wanting to answer, but she had to hold up the appearance that it had merely been a bad night and not a _Bad_ night. “If one would use a diary to keep track of the days one slept well and not, there wouldn't be a significant influence of the moon. The days with a full moon are remembered best, caused it serves as some kind of marker, an outstanding event of the night so to say.”

All those years teaching others definitely had drilled her lecture mode into her; for once it came in handy.

“And what causes it then if not the moon? 'Cause I had really hoped for some werewolf powers or such”, Eli explained with a wide smile.

Elsa shook her head. It was fascinating how an intelligent, young man like Eli Wallace who was a math prodigy didn't seem to know anything about sleeping problems. Then again the time of all-round education had already started to come to an end when she had been born and she merely managed to pull it off due to her longevity. And even despite that there were still areas in which she herself merely had superficial knowledge.

“It mostly depends on what you did before you went to sleep. Did you do something that involved your brain, like programming for example”, she spoke from her own experience here as more often than not she did indeed have problems sleeping if a programming session went into the middle of the night. “Also what you've eaten or drunk before going to bed and sometimes also throughout the day has an influence as well.”

“Oh.”

Elsa just wanted to open her mouth to reply with a snide remark for Eli's very short answer when she had been beat by a completely unlikely source.

“You know, Elsa at least has a reason for being curt today, a shallow one, mind you, but still a reason. What's yours, Eli?”, Rush remarked from his place, having fixed Eli with his eyes.

Elsa looked at Rush in surprise not having expected him to say something while Eli tried to stammer an answer.

When none came Rush turned his attention back to his console while saying: “As I thought.”

 _And here I thought_ I _was in a bad mood_ , Elsa thought, still trying to process what just happened, though with much less of an imitation of a fish than Eli was doing.

After a few moments Eli had finally collected himself, but instead of continuing the topic he wisely decided to drop it and instead concentrated on his console again.

With reluctance Elsa had to admit that the discussion had done wonders to distract her from her distraught. Now that they were all silently working the loss she had experienced in the dark of the night sent her emotions in a turmoil again and she had to work hard to keep both tears and ice at bay.

She probably wouldn't get much done today anyway. Would the hurt of losing her sister ever go away? She had known back then that sooner or later her sister would have to pass away, that it had happened sooner had kept her on her toes, but learning that Anna had become something more and would be by her side for her whole life had made it unnecessary to really mourn her sister. But now? The event she hadn't thought possible anymore had occurred. Anna has vanished from her life. Her oldest and best friend, her confidante, the calm rock in the midst of her swirling storm inside is gone, never to return.

However Elsa knew that Anna wouldn't want her to mourn her forever. She had a destiny, _some_ destiny to fulfill and so she had to live on, just like she had done after learning what her immortality really meant for her.

Of course that didn't mean that it would be easy or that she would stop mourning Anna today or tomorrow.

A colorful distortion traveling through the room interrupted her thoughts however. The ship had dropped out of light-speed and if everything went as usual the gate would dial in moments. Sergeant Riley would stand at the... wait, no. He had a late shift this day. Then it would be Brody. No, he neither had a morning shift.

Elsa let out a silent groan. It was her turn to stand at the control console of the gate room and to control the Kino that would be sent through. She so wasn't in the mood for this, but there was not really a choice if she wanted to keep up appearances.

If on cue Elsa's PADD activated in her pocket: _“Young to Elsa.”_

“Elsa here”, she replied once she had freed the device from her pockets.

“ _We've got a gate connection. Come along with a Kino so that we can get the ball rolling.”_

Elsa sighed while ignoring the sniggering that came from Eli's direction. “Understood.”

She lowered the PADD and looked at Eli. “What's so funny?”

“Well, the Kinos are essentially balls, so getting the ball rolling...”, Eli explained with a wide smile.

Elsa rolled her eyes. She so wasn't in the mood for these jokes. “I'll better be on my way.”

* * *

With a quick detour to the Kino room, Elsa entered the gate room a few minutes later, the silvery event horizon already in place inside the gate.

As soon as she had entered the room she was greeted by a much too jubilant Colonel Young, at least that's how she saw it.

“Good morning, Elsa.”

At least he didn't continue with the ball joke that had gotten Eli cracking up. Thank whatever deity existed – if any – for small favors.

“Colonel Young”, she replied with a nod in the direction of his voice, only then noticing Lieutenant Scott and Sergeant Greer standing beside him with one of the civilians, Dr. Inman standing a bit further away from them while holding a dialing remote. She extended her simple greeting to the three of them.

“You got the Kino?”, Colonel Young asked and Elsa merely replied by throwing said device she had been holding in her hand casually towards the gate, knowing that its control systems would start gravitating it long before it would either hit the ground or the event horizon.

“Must be the most energetic deployment of a Kino I've seen yet”, Scott said, one hand stroking his chin in thought. “I'll give it a nine.”

Elsa had just focused Scott with an icy glare – at least the young man gulped and looked sheepishly once he had noticed that – when Greer opened his mouth: “Ya man, I'd totally sell this as a nine, too.”

A pity that her glare didn't work on the Sergeant. She had already learned that she could glare at him all she wanted and either he'd completely ignore her or glare right back. This time he had chosen to ignore her, instead looking at the event horizon.

“Elsa, if you'd please?”, Young interrupted her, pointing at one of the consoles.

Elsa moved behind the console and established a connection to the Kino.

“Sending through”, she commented, while she entered a few commands. The Kino flew towards the gate and soon enough right through it. As soon as the device had left the wormhole on the other side she was assaulted by a large amount of data its sensors provided her with.

“What do we have?”, the Colonel asked from beside her. He was close, but he knew that she'd prefer a bit of a distance and he respected that.

“Breathable atmosphere, no measurable toxins, temperature around twenty degrees Celsius. Planet is orbiting an old, red dwarf star with a reduced activity that allowed a simple flora to develop. Mainly grass and a few flowers. Probably there will be insects as well.”

“And points of interest?”, Scott threw in, not able to look at her console due to where he stood with Greer in the room.

Elsa shook her head. “Nothing. At least not in proximity to the gate.” She glanced at the countdown clock which showed basically just enough time to cool down the engines. “And according to the clock, whatever we're here for can't be far from the gate.”

“Alright, you heard the lady. Check the proximity of the gate, don't stroll too far.”

Both soldiers immediately stood at the ready and answered with a “Yes, sir” before they followed the Kino through the event horizon, Dr. Inman kept safely in their middle.

“And it was a ten”, Young said once the two men had disappeared, Elsa just so noticing his wink as her head whipped around to look at him.

With a roll of her eyes she returned her concentration back to the console and switched on the microphone of the Kino so that she might pick up at least a little bit of entertainment from Scott and Greer. After all the data from the planet really wasn't all that exciting.

“ _-ide from the grass it looks barren so far”_ , she heard Dr. Inman's comment. Apparently she had either started too soon with her commentary or Elsa had been a bit too late to switch on the microphones. They'd definitely have to work on their timing.

“ _Wait, there's something”_ , she heard Greer's response, soon followed by the noise of both men walking down the ramp that led to the gate, the noise of a third pair of shoes following shortly after.

“ _Stop! Hands in the air!”_ , Scott ordered and Elsa just wanted to enter a command to turn around the Kino so that it would look back at the gate from where it was floating when a completely different voice interrupted her.

“ _Ikke skyt!”_

No, that couldn't be. She rapidly finished the command.

“ _Wait. You're speaking English. And are those really weapons? They look funny...”_

The Kino turned around.

“ _I said, hands in the air!”_ , Scott ordered again who had just become visible in the Kino's field of view together with Greer and Dr. Inman.

“ _Alright, alright”_ , the female and to Elsa well known voice said.

Finally the fourth person came into view, standing on the ground next to the gate. There was no doubt anymore who was standing there.

“Anna!”, Elsa exclaimed, her hands covering her mouth in shock. _How?_ No, the how wasn't the problem. The why however was the question. Why did the Ascended drop her off on this planet so _Destiny_ could pick her up? Had _Destiny_ planned to dial this planet?

“You know her?”, Young asked, having inched closer to look at the video showing her sister and the two soldiers.

“ _Look, I don't mean you any harm, I don't have any weapons on me anyway...”_

Elsa caught Anna's look. She was planning something, something stupid. Elsa had to act fast before Anna possibly had the idea to enter the wormhole from the wrong side.

“She's my sister”, Elsa replied to Young who acted as expected: surprised, even with raised eyebrows, both of them.

“Your sister? But isn't she dead?”

Elsa sighed. “Yes and no. She'd been an Ascended ever since.”

“An Ascen-”, the Colonel began to ask in disbelief, but Young's radio interrupted him.

“ _Lieutenant Scott to Colonel Young, we have a situation here.”_

“Look, I'll tell you what I know in a few, but first I need to make sure that Anna doesn't do anything stupid.”

He looked at the video feed which showed Anna itching around a bit.

“You sure?”

Elsa nodded. “Definitely.”

“ _Colonel Young, do you read?”_

“Alright. But she'll be under guard until I'm sure she's no danger, understood?”

“Yes, Colonel”, Elsa replied with a smile.

Young reached for his radio and keyed it. “One moment, Scott, we see it here on the Kino feed as well.”

Right away they saw Scott doing a quick glance over his shoulder towards the Kino, giving a nod.

“ _What's with the flying ball?”_ , Anna asked.

Elsa finally reached for the button which would enable the two-way communication through the Kino.

“Anna, it's me, Elsa.”

Scott looked at the Kino in surprise.

“ _You know her?”_ , he asked.

“ _Elsa! Where are you? Why am I hearing your voice from the ball? Are you somehow captured in there?”_

Elsa smiled at her sister's antics.

“No, silly. Stay where you are, I'll come for you.”

With that she took a last look at the Colonel, who gave her a sharp nod. Not waiting any further she went to the gate and through it.

On the other side she nearly stumbled down the ramp in front of the gate, but she caught herself and managed to round the bottom of the ramp without tripping. Coming up next to Scott and Greer who both had still trained their weapons on her sister, she took her first real look at her sister since around 150 years. The first thing Elsa finally noticed was that thankfully the Ancients hadn't dropped Anna naked like she had read the Ancients had done with Daniel Jackson, the other human who she knew who had been ascended and then dropped down again due to breaking the rules. Instead Anna was wearing a dress not dissimilar to the comfortable summer dress she loved so much and hey, it wasn't white or grey! Thank the Ascended for small favors.

“Elsa.” Anna had spoken first, the same sisterly love in her voice that had caught Elsa way back in her ice palace when Anna had come to bring her back to Arendelle.

“Anna”, Elsa replied with a smile, trying to fill that one word with so much longing as well.

Not waiting any further she closed the final gap between them, hoping that this didn't turn out like when she had tried to hug the ascended Anna for the first – and last – time. Soon enough however she found herself holding a very solid woman, said woman's arms closing around Elsa as well.

“Oh Anna, I've missed you so much!” The tears she had held back since she had woken up came again, but this time they were tears of joy and relief.

“You're always missing me, sis”, Anna replied and Elsa could feel Anna's smile where their cheeks touched.

After some long moments Elsa finally released her hold on Anna, however she immediately took hold of Anna's hands, smiling while she looked into those cerulean eyes that were always so full of laughter and mischief.

“So, you know her?”, Lieutenant Scott interrupted.

Elsa turned her face around to look at the soldier who – unlike Greer – had his weapon lowered by now.

“Yes, she's my sister Anna.”

“But, but how?”, Dr. Inman threw in. “Didn't you tell that she... you know...” The woman made a few gestures that probably should communicate the word “died” without saying it in the presence of that person who did die.

“Who are they by the way?”, Anna asked, but before Elsa could answer she continued. “Are those really weapons? They look so different. And what about that strange ring with the standing puddle in it? Is it magic? And why does the sky look so strange, so red?”

It were these questions that told Elsa what was going on.

“You don't remember?”, she asked Anna.

“Remember what?”

Of course the Ascended would drop Anna without any knowledge she had gathered while she had been ascended.

Elsa sighed. “It's quite a story. Let's get you back to the ship first, it's more comfortable there.”

“Ship? What ship?”

“ _Elsa, I've organized Lieutenant James as guard”_ , Colonel Young's voice said from the Kino.

“And what's with that floating ball?”

Elsa sighed again. This was going to be a long day. On the bright side – a very, very bright side – she had her sister back.

“Understood, thank you”, she said towards the Kino, then turned to her sister. “I'll explain everything to you. But first let's get back.” Then Elsa turned to Dr. Inman. “Would please dial back _Destiny_?”

“Of course”, the doctor replied and used her dialing remote to take control of the Kino, thus severing the connection between the Kino and the gate that prevented the wormhole from closing. Not much later said wormhole collapsed making Anna jump.

“It's alright”, Elsa said, moving around to stand besides Anna, urging her to move in front of the gate – in safe distance of course.

“If you say so, I believe you of course.” So their implicit trust was still there, still strong.

Then the gate started to spin.

“What is this anyway?”, Anna asked.

“It's, uhm... It's called a Stargate. Think of it like a portal between places, a way to instantly travel between two locations. There aren't only two however, but thousands and one can connect two with one another by, uhm, giving the gate one is using the address of another. That is called dialing.” It was strange to explain something that was completely normal for her without too many words that only came into existence in the twentieth century.

“Woah”, Anna exclaimed with awe in her eyes. “Is it magic?”

Elsa laughed at that. She should have expected that question as Anna had always been on the lookout for more magic before her... passing on, so that Elsa wouldn't feel so alone.

“No, it's a very advanced piece of technology, built by a non-human, yet human-like race of beings that are millions of years older than us.” How to explain the concept of aliens to someone from the nineteenth century?

Meanwhile the gate had finished dialing and the wormhole was establishing itself inside of it; the unstable vortex of the wormhole making Anna jump again before she had the time to comment on what Elsa had said.

“Does it always do that? Before you guys came through it had done the same...”

“Yes. Safety advice: never jump into this vortex lashing out. It means instant death.”

Anna gulped. “Alright.”

“Good.” Elsa took Anna's hand and squeezed it. “Are you ready?”

Anna nodded with a bit of hesitation. “I... I was born ready.”

Elsa laughed again. “I know you were, sweety.”

“So... shall I hold my breath?”

“No. In fact it's best if you breath out before entering the event horizon.” Upon seeing the confused look of Anna Elsa of course had to elaborate. “The event horizon is the shimmering surface you see there. The puddle.”

Elsa finally walked forward, Anna immediately falling in step beside her. A few steps later they both entered the wormhole.

* * *

It had been an amazing feeling. Nothing in her life could have prepared her for it and yet it felt so normal as well. Considering the water-like surface she had expected to get wet, but nothing like that had happened. Of course thinking about it she should have already known this considering she had seen those men and woman as well as Elsa leaving that... event horizon?

Now however it took a moment for Anna to get her bearings straight. A moment ago she had been on a lovely if plain meadow with the... what had Elsa called it? Ah, right. Stargate. And now she was in an enclosed room with lights that came from the ceiling that had absolutely no resemblance to candles or gas lanterns as there was no flicker at all.

Looking ahead she noticed two... well, they looked like lecterns, but she had the feeling that they weren't. Behind one of them stood two people, a man and a woman. Was the man the one she had heard earlier through that ball? And the woman, did she really wear pants? What a strange color pattern that was. Wait, wasn't Elsa wearing pants as well?

Anna quickly glanced down to Elsa's legs, seeing her memory confirmed. Women wearing pants? Now that was something she hadn't seen up to now, aside maybe when riding horses. Then again she hadn't seen any of this. Even the clothing of Elsa and the other people she had seen looked foreign to her, not at all like the clothes she had seen the citizens of Arendelle – both rich and poor – as well as any noble guests they had entertained wear.

The man with the black hair leaned over one of the lecterns and began to talk. “Lieutenant Scott, explore the area around the gate. I have the feeling however that we already found why _Destiny_ stopped here.”

“ _Copy”_ , came the answer from nowhere, the voice the same as from one of those young man that had pointed a weapon at her on that meadow.

Behind her she heard that portal collapsing again and she had nearly managed not to jump, but then there was a completely different noise. With a jump she turned around and saw white puffs of steam escaping from the floor to left and right of the ring.

“It's alright, Anna.” She felt the Elsa's hand squeeze her own. “It's normal, at least for this gate it is.”

Anna felt herself urged forward by her sister still overwhelmed by what her senses were telling her. They finally stopped in front of the lectern the other two people were standing behind.

“Anna, may I present Colonel Young”, Elsa pointed at the man with black hair, “military leader of this group and Lieutenant Vanessa James”, Elsa pointed at the woman next to him. It didn't escape Anna that she hadn't provided the Colonel's first name – and she was very sure that Colonel was his rank and not his first name.

“Colonel Young, Vanessa, this is my sister Anna Agdarsdatter.” Elsa's voice was full of pride and longing. While the former wasn't that unusual for Elsa the latter was since the two of them saw each other all the time. It was as if Elsa hadn't seen her for a long time, but they had been together moments before she had woken on the meadow, right? After all Elsa had stood by her bedside as she... as she... wait.

“A pleasure”, the Colonel replied in the meantime. “Lieutenant James here will accompany you until you're familiar enough with everything around here. Probably we should get you to the infirmary first, have you checked out.”

“I agree”, Elsa said and started to drag Anna along again.

“Elsa, wait”, Anna said while freeing herself from her sister's grasp. “What happened there?”, she pointed at the ring. “The last I remember was lying in my bed... dying. Where's Kristoff? Ingunn? Olaf? Why doesn't anything look like I remember it? Even you look different and I don't even mean your clothes!” She hadn't noticed it earlier, but while her sister didn't look physically older she definitely did so from how she carried herself, from the wealth of knowledge hidden behind her eyes.

Elsa let out a sigh, glancing towards the Colonel and then looking straight back at Anna. “There's no easy way to tell you this, so I'll be blunt: you died in that bed. You died around 140 years ago. Everyone you knew besides me and my snowmen are dead.”

“What? No!” Anna recoiled from her sister, taking a step back even. “You're lying! That can't be right!” She looked around the room in the hope of seeing Kristoff or Ingunn standing in one of the doorways. “Kristoff! Ingunn!”

Despite this however she knew deep down that her sister was right, that Elsa didn't lie to her, not about this. Not even Anna would have sunk so low to lie about something like this.

Then however the memories of her final moments in that bed came crashing back to her. She had died. She had really died. Her knees got weak and she began to collapse onto the floor. The last thing she noticed before darkness claimed her was how absurdly smooth the floor was.

* * *

The first thing Anna noticed when she came to was a strange humming noise all around her. No sea splashing against the shore, no birds or the noises of a busy capital city. Only this strange humming. Then her memories came back to her. The meadow with the strange sky, the standing ring with puddle, the men with their weapons, Elsa and the other room. Her death. She had died, she had died 140 years ago if her sister was to be believed and what reason would Elsa have to lie to her?

Slowly Anna opened her eyes looking at a brown-grey ceiling with those strange lights in them. Slowly she turned her head to the right, immediately noticing the fair-haired woman sitting in a chair next to her bed. Elsa's concentration was on a small, black tableau resting in one of her hands while a finger of the other hand swiped across it as if she was painting or something.

“Hey”, Anna said and immediately Elsa's attention turned from whatever she had been doing to Anna.

“Anna! You're awake”, Elsa exclaimed with a wide smile.

“What happened?” Of course she essentially knew what had happened, but she wanted to have a confirmation from someone else, just so she knew that she wasn't insane or more crazy than usual.

“You collapsed after I told you that you had...” Elsa looked away, biting her bottom lip.

“Died”, Anna finished. “I know, Elsa, you don't need to act like I'm made of paper now.”

“I know”, Elsa said, grasping Anna's hand that was lying close to her. “I just didn't want to overwhelm you again.”

“It's alright. I know it now, it was just too much back then. Learning about one's own death and the death of nearly everyone I held dear.” Tears began to escape her thinking about Kristoff and Ingunn and everyone else.

Elsa's other hand reached forward, caressing Anna's cheek. The tableau had been dropped on the bed next to Anna and she noticed that it wasn't all black on the side she hadn't been able to see. Instead there was an image that seemed to be lit from within itself and... it was moving?!

“Anna, I've lived all those deaths”, Elsa said and Anna's eyes immediately fixed on the blue eyes of her sister. “I might not know exactly how you feel, but I might come pretty close. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here for you.”

Elsa then leaned forward and kissed Anna very gently on the forehead before returning to the chair though one hand still held Anna's.

Anna looked again at the face of her sister that was filled with so much love. She'd never grow tired of that sight, not now and not in hundreds of years.

“How... how long was I unconscious?”, Anna finally started with her intention to fill a few blanks she had, starting with the most obvious.

“Not long. Not even an hour.” Elsa looked around the room, but apparently missed who or what she was looking for. “TJ, our me-... physician went to grab something to eat. Once she's back she'll do a quick checkup and then I can show you around.”

“Sounds good”, Anna replied with a smile. She then focused that strange tableau with her eyes. “What's that?”

Elsa's hand now left Anna's and picked up the tableau. “That is...” She paused.

Anna looked at Elsa's eyes again and noticed that look that said that Elsa was thinking rapidly. Probably that was something that wasn't that easy to explain, something that had come to be within those 140 years that she had been dead. That was another thing she'd need to ask. How was it that she was no longer dead? But first she'd let Elsa answer something hopefully mundane.

“You... you remember the days when we had Ada Lovelace over?”, Elsa finally asked, her thumb wandering along the side of the tableau where Anna could see some raised parts.

Lovelace... Lovelace... ah, right! “Yes, you two talked about something called unalcoholic engine or something.”

Elsa giggled, the hand holding the tableau covering her mouth. Some things didn't change even in all those decades.

“It's called Analytical Engine”, Elsa corrected.

“That's what I said”, Anna replied with a mock pout. Of course she knew that she had said it incorrectly, but at least that got the ball rolling.

“Sure you did”, Elsa said while grasping Anna's hand again with her free hand. “Nevertheless I had told you back then that the point of the Engine had been to do calculations faster than humans were able to, you remember?”

Anna thought back at that time. It had been a year or two before Elsa had staged her own death. “You said that it would need to cover a full blown room for all the needed machinery. It did indeed when you had built it out of ice once.”

“Indeed it did and that didn't change for quite some time. After some decades, especially however the last seventy years that began to change however. The mechanisms that back then had been mechanical in nature became electronic, powered by tiny amounts of electricity and everything got ever so much smaller.”

Anna's eyes wandered to the black tableau again that Elsa was turning around in her hand. Was that what it was? An Analytical Engine en miniature?

“But that's not the only development that happened. The input and output back then had been through punched cards not unlike those used in automated weaving looms. But that changed as well, as so called displays were invented that allows one to see moving images and so called touch panels that – as the name suggests – react to touch.”

Elsa turned the tableau so that Anna could look at the colored side of it. There were colored gems, or at least what looked like stylized gems that sat on a kind of grid pattern.

“It didn't take long either that humanity learned that such devices – they were called computers by then – could be used for more than merely serious calculations. One could use them for entertainment as well.” Elsa pointed at the tableau. “What you see here is a game. Not that dissimilar to the games we played back in the castle, though with much more freedom as one isn't restricted by the amount of pieces one has physically available.” Elsa touched one of the gems with her fingers and moved it to an adjacent grid cell which neighbored to a cell with a similar colored gem above and below it. Immediately afterwards the three gems vanished and the gems above it followed gravity and fell down.

Anna was mesmerized. “Wow!”

“But that's not all.” She waved the tableau a bit. “A device like this also allows one to immediately speak to anyone around the world who has a similar device as well. No more waiting weeks or months for letters. One can either send electronic post that arrives immediately or one can directly talk with others.”

Anna looked on dumbfounded. “You... you mean like you did earlier through that ball?”

Elsa knitted her brows. “Similar. Not exactly the same, but similar, yes.” Elsa touched the – what had she called it? Device? Yes – the device and then leaned close to Anna's face holding out the device so that it's dark side was turned towards them.

“What are you doing?”

“You'll see in a moment.” After that Elsa turned the device around again and pressed something. “Here.” She held the device in front of Anna again, but this time with the colored side turned towards her. Anna thought she saw the side of the bed, but then the image moved and soon enough she saw both her as well as Elsa. Her looking confused while Elsa looked on with a smile.

“That's us!”, Anna exclaimed, but then the mouth of the Anna she saw began to move and her own kept staying open.

“ _What are you doing?”_

“ _You'll see in a moment”_ , Elsa replied.

“But, that wasn't my voice!”

That's when Elsa laughed out. “Yes, it was. One's voice sounds different while oneself is speaking. Only with recording devices we learned that, though that's already a century or so ago as well.”

Anna groaned, rubbing her temples. “I feel so overwhelmed. So much information.”

Elsa patted Anna's cheek again. “I don't envy you. This probably won't stop anytime soon as you've got to learn more than a century worth of changes. That”, Elsa waved the device in front of them again, “is only a part of what has changed since you ruled Arendelle.”

Anna groaned again. If she already got an impeding headache with only this one package of changes then how should she survive even more changes?

A new voice however ensured that she wouldn't need to find out too soon. “Ah, I see my patient is awake.”

Anna looked up and saw a blonde woman walking towards her, again in pants. It weren't however those strangely patterned clothes that the Vanessa James woman wore, but instead the same black outfit of the Colonel with T. Johansen written over her left breast. Probably that was some kind of uniform. A strange uniform, but a uniform nevertheless.

The woman came up next to them and held out a hand that Anna took.

“I'm Tamara Johansen, but everyone here calls me TJ. I'm the medic”, the woman said with a smile, but Anna had to take an instinctive look at Elsa who thankfully understood right away.

“For now let's say that medic is a modern word for physician. We can discuss the details later.”

That satisfied Anna... at least for now. She turned her attention back to Tamara.

“Great, um, I'm Anna.” What name had Elsa introduced her as earlier? Ah, right. “Anna Agdarsdatter, Elsa's sister.”

Tamara continued to smile even after they released each others hand. “I had surmised that much from how close you two appeared.”

Anna blushed at the praise that the two of them could still be easily seen as sisters despite there oh so different appearance.

“Now”, Tamara continued, “let me quickly check you and then you're free to go.”

* * *

Anna's check up hadn't taken long and as soon as Elsa left the infirmary together with her sister Vanessa James had fallen into step behind them. Anna would probably need the Lieutenant both as a baby sitter and a tour guide once work would call Elsa away again. At the latest the morning of the next day probably.

“I'm surprised that you didn't ask TJ why she's named 'Johansen'”, Elsa said while they walked away from the infirmary.

Anna giggled. “Elsa, even I know that Arendelle was one of the few countries that still used patronyms and matronyms.” She stopped and turned towards her older sister. “Now, tell me, what kind of place is this? You said something about a ship, back... there... on the meadow... wherever.” Anna frantically gestured in some random direction that had Elsa stifle a giggle. “But I don't feel any waves and I've been on plenty ships. So, spill!”

Well, if this wouldn't blow Anna's mind nothing would. “We are indeed on a ship. She's called _Destiny_ and an old beauty. But you're right in that there are no waves. We aren't sailing in an ocean, but instead through the vast emptiness of space between stars.” And sometimes even inside them, but that was a topic for another time. Elsa immediately noticed Anna's unbelieving stare and knew that there would be only one place on the ship where Elsa might be able to convince her.

“I don't believe you. That's nonsense and you know it!”, Anna exclaimed.

“Really, Anna? That's where you draw the line?”, Elsa replied with a sigh. “Think about it: I just showed you vast technological advancements. And we stepped from a meadow into a completely different room by the use of a portal.” Granted, the gates weren't man-made and neither was _Destiny_ , but that wasn't the point. “Thankfully I know just the place.”

Elsa took Anna's hand and dragged her along the corridors, Lieutenant James following behind them. Just before she reached the already open bulkhead doors to their destination Elsa stopped and again turned to Anna.

“I want you to close your eyes.”

Anna glared at Elsa. “Really?”

“Oh, come on, I know how you like surprises!” Though Anna liked even more trying to find out what's behind the surprise ahead of time. Thankfully Anna's tendency to sleep in helped Elsa with both birthdays as well as Christmases.

This time it was Anna who sighed. “Alright. I'll play along.” She closed her eyes and held out her hands. “Guide me, oh unbelievable sister of mine.”

Elsa – barely – resisted the urge to either tickle her sister or to shower her in snowflakes and instead took her hands and carefully guided her onto the observation deck. She moved Anna right up against the railing, leaving Anna's hand on the top most rail. Then she stepped behind her sister, hugging her while resting her chin on Anna's shoulder.

“Alright”, Elsa whispered into Anna's ear, “you may open your eyes now.”

As usual Anna was none for being slow and thus her eyes flew open just before Elsa had finished her sentence with a speed that would have made _Destiny_ 's FTL drive jealous. It took a few moments more before Elsa noticed the eyes widen even more with a loud gasp leaving Anna's throat.

“Oh my gods, Elsa! It's full of stars!”

Elsa just wanted to surmise about Anna's quote right out of 2001, A Space Odyssey, when Anna suddenly turned around crashing her head right into Elsa's.

Both women let out an “ow” and Anna recovered faster than Elsa – and Elsa thought she could hear a stifled giggle from Vanessa's direction.

“I'm sorry!”, Anna wrapped Elsa's face in her hands and kissed her on the forehead where the two had collided. “It was just... all those stars!” Anna had turned away from Elsa again and towards the windows.

Elsa's rubbed her forehead, but she had immensely enjoyed the contact with her sister. Something she had missed all those decades.

“It's alright. I better go sit over there on the couch – where it's safer.”

She took a quick glance at the room's countdown clock. Oh, what a nice surprise. Only a few minutes and _Destiny_ would jump back into FTL. She couldn't await Anna's reaction. No, wait, she knew exactly how she would react. Elsa sat down, sending a short smile at Vanessa who had taken a position at the doors.

“There really are stars all around us!”, Anna exclaimed, partially leaning over the railing. Once she had managed to touch the glass – her feet had nearly left the floor at that – she turned around to look at Elsa. “Where's Earth? Can I see it?”

“We are too far away from Earth.”

They hadn't even tried to find the Milky Way amidst all those galaxies that were visible. It would be an amazing find to show astronomers images of a past Milky Way – after all the galaxy they'd see from here would be millions of years younger as well. Maybe they'd even have the luck to see it right in the midst of ripping apart one of its former dwarf galaxies? Probably that was one of the reasons the hobby astronomers aboard hadn't yet managed to find their home galaxy. It's was simply not easily recognizable as their own...

“Oh.” Anna deflated a bit, but then she straightened right away again and smiled into Elsa's direction. “But we can go there with that gate-thingie, right?”

Again Elsa had to disappoint her sister. “No, sweetie.” It really hurt to see Anna's look right now. “You see, _Destiny_ is an old ship. She had been built by the same people that built the gates. And as you probably know with age there come problems. One of _Destiny_ 's problems is that she can't store that much energy anymore. And trust me, using the gate to dial Earth needs a huge amount.”

“Oh.” Again Anna deflated, this time quite a bit more. “So we're stuck here?”

“Physically, yes. Though we're trying to find a way home. But we do have a way to communicate with Earth. You'll probably really like it once I show you.” Elsa winked at her sister. Of course the little hoyden would love to swap with other people. Anna had often told her as a child and later as a grown woman how she often dreamed to be someone else. A baker, a librarian, a physicist, a sailor. Her imagination knew no end there.

“Okay.” Anna's attention then moved from Elsa to a different area of the room. “What's with the digits counting down on the wall?”

“That's the -” Before Elsa was able to fully form the sentence her brain caught up with what exactly her sister had said. “Wait, you can read that?!”, she nearly shrieked.

Anna at least had the decency to look at Elsa sheepishly. “Yes. Shouldn't I be able to?”

Could it... could it really be that Anna might have subconscious access to the knowledge she had gained as an Ascended? Even if it only would be a small subset of that knowledge it would still be vast. And Anna being able to read Ancient would definitely make her immediately useful among the crew. After all it was one thing to be able to translate Ancient, but to fluently speak it... only few people aboard – among that Elsa herself – were really able to pull that off and they were in very high demand. She'd need to show Anna some texts later on to prove this.

But now she had a different point to deal with.

“It's a countdown. It tells us how long _Destiny_ will spend at this place before we're on our way again.” She'd need to explain a few more things with more details in the future of course, especially that they didn't have control over the ship's course right now, but for now that would have to suffice. “So turn around and enjoy the show.”

Anna blinked at her for a moment or two, but then she turned around in a haste, including the need to cling to the railing so that she wouldn't fall over due to her momentum.

Elsa took a glimpse at the countdown again which had switched to red digits already, signifying that less than a minute was remaining. Looking back at Anna she saw her younger sibling giddy with anticipation despite Anna not even knowing what would happen.

“How long?” Though she was definitely as inpatient as usual.

“Not much, around half a minute”, Elsa replied. She could already the vibrations of the ship changing a bit – it wasn't by much, but the time they had spent on _Destiny_ had shown her that in a quiet moment like this one could indeed feel the ship preparing herself for the jump to FTL.

Then it happened. The bow they could see the tip of through the windows elongated, then a flash occurred, the distortion waved passed through the room and _Destiny_ had reached her traveling speed with the streamers of FTL passing along her hull.

And the gasp Elsa could hear from Anna's direction told her that Anna had been deeply impressed as well.

“Elsa!”, Anna exclaimed. “The sky is awake!”

And a hundred points to Elsa for a correct prediction of her sister's behavior.

Right then Anna whipped around again to face Elsa, a wide grin splitting her face and Elsa remembered what usually followed that exclamation.

“Do you want to build a snowman?”

Elsa indeed had her sister back, a tear of joy escaping her eyes accompanied by laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Anna is among the ordinary people again though I gave a little hint at what she might have gained. I guess we'll have to learn with her and the crew what she else she had brought back from the Ascended plane. ;)
> 
> It was on purpose by the way that I had reduced Anna's interaction with the crew to a minimum for this chapter, it was mainly the two sisters this time. This will change with the next chapter however. :)
> 
> And yes, it was planned from the beginning that Anna would be deascended, though I didn't really know when. A few chapters later I had the idea to place it here, right after the "Faith" double chapter. Why? You'll have to wait and see. :P
> 
> Note: "Ikke skyt!" hopefully is Norwegian for "Don't shoot!"; at least it is according to Google Translate.


End file.
